Clan-Members » 7-6 in the third and Houston pulled even in the four

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The scoreboard may say victory, but Damian Lillard sees work to do.Lillard scored 38 points, making key free throws in the waning seconds, and the Portland Trail Blazers held off the Phoenix Suns for a 124-121 victory on Tuesday night.After leading by 18 points early, it shouldnt have been so close at the end, Lillard said.We talk about just being able to play the way we want to play for longer spans of time, he said. Well play really well for seven minutes, and then in four minutes well give up a 15-2 run and give up everything we just worked for. We got to continue to work on that. The good thing is, were able to find a way to win games while we work on it.CJ McCollum added 33 points for the Blazers, who have won three straight.Lillard hit a 3-pointer with 6:45 left that put Portland in front 101-95. Eric Bledsoe made a free throw to pull Phoenix within 115-114 with just under a minute left, but he missed the second attempt that would have tied it and Lillard scored a layup on the other end.Bledsoe hit two free throws to again get within a point, but Lillard was fouled with 13.3 seconds left and made both to put Portland up 119-116.Devin Booker made a 3-pointer that pulled the Suns within 122-121 but Lillard again hit two free throws with 3.7 seconds left and Booker missed from some 25 feet has time ran out.Bledsoe finished with 31 points and Booker had 23.Its not tough for us to come back, we come back a lot, Suns coach Earl Watson said. Thats what we do. Our team is really close and we have a lot of belief.The Suns, who opened the season with four straight losses before winning two of their last three, were without Tyson Chandler because of personal reasons. Chandler has been in double-digit rebounds in three of the last four games.Watson started rookie Marquese Chriss, who was making his first career start. Chriss, who finished with seven points, was a first-round draft pick (eighth overall) out of Washington by the Sacramento Kings, acquired by the Suns in a draft-day trade.Portland was hurt when they lost starting forward Al-Farouq Aminu to a left calf strain early and he did not return. Aminu is averaging seven points and 7.9 rebounds this season.Aminu said after the game that he was unlikely to play on Wednesday when the Blazers visit the Clippers.McCollum hit his first six shots, including three 3-pointers, and the Blazers jumped out to a 27-12 lead. McCollum matched his career high with 37 points in Portlands 100-94 victory at Memphis on Sunday.Booker had 39 points in the Suns 119-108 loss at the Lakers on Sunday, after scoring 38 in a 112-111 overtime victory over New Orleans on Friday, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to have back-to-back games with at least 38 points.TIP-INSSuns: The Suns beat the Blazers 118-115 in overtime last week in Phoenix. The teams play four games this season.Trail Blazers: Portland made 12 of its first 13 field goal attempts. ... It was the second time in his career that McCollum has had back-to-back games with 30 or more points.MENTOR AND FRIEND: Watson played his final NBA season with Portland and grew close to Lillard. The summer before last, when the Blazers lost four starters and Lillard was the last remaining starter on the roster, Watson said the two talked and he told Lillard he needed to be a leader on and off the court. Lillard responded by organizing a team bonding trip to San Diego and the young Blazers went on to go 44-38 and advance to the second round of the playoffs.That is when you saw this young group become something else, Watson said.FAST START: Lillard has scored 262 points so far this season, the most through the first eight games of a season in franchise history. It is also the most by an NBA player since Kobe Bryant had 264 through the first eight in 2009-10.UP NEXTSuns: Host the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night.Trail Blazers: Visit the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. The Clippers beat the Blazers in Portland 114-106 on Oct. 27.Cheap Vapormax China . Belfort (24-10) needed just 77 seconds to down Henderson in the headlining bout of Saturdays "UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Henderson" event at Goiania Arena in Goiania, Brazil. The fight served as a rematch of the pairs 2006 meeting, which Henderson won by decision. Fake Balenciaga Shoes .4 million title. Ryan Riess emerged with the title after a session in which he started behind, but used expert skill to gather the chips to his side amid the unpredictability of no-limit Texas Hold em. Riess put his final opponent Jay Farber all-in with an Ace-King. http://www.fakejordancheap.com/wholesale-air-jordan-4-china.html . The 19-year-old Olsen played 34 games with the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL this season. In that time, hes recorded 17 goals and 17 assists with 36 penalty minutes. Fake Vapormax For Sale . Murray beat Sam Querrey 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3 to clinch Britains opening-round victory against the United States on Sunday at Petco Park. "Im proud of the way Im playing just now, because I had to do a lot of work to get back to where I want to be," Murray said after celebrating with his teammates on the red clay court in a temporary stadium in left field of the downtown home of baseballs San Diego Padres. Cheap Air Max 270 . The formidable trio of Canadian receivers -- individually known as Chris Getzlaf, Rob Bagg and Andy Fantuz -- will share the field at Mosaic Stadium one more time on Sunday.BALTIMORE -- Stunned by an early barrage of home runs, the Houston Astros put on an offensive show of their own to emphatically end a five-game losing streak.Jose Altuve homered and had five RBI, and Houston rallied to beat the Baltimore Orioles 15-8 on Friday night despite allowing four homers in the first inning.George Springer went 4 for 5 with a home run for the Astros, who also got long balls from Evan Gattis and Teoscar Hernandez.Early on, Houston appeared destined to drop to .500 for the first time since June 1.The Orioles became the first team in the modern era (since 1900) to open a game with four home runs before making an out, according to STATS. Adam Jones hit Collin McHughs first pitch into the seats in left field and Hyun Soo Kim singled before Manny Machado, Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo homered in succession.Houston answered with a five-run second to go up 6-5. Altuve capped the surge with a two-run double with two outs to chase Wade Miley, who matched the shortest start of his career.You go from really being shell-shocked in the first with the home runs -- to knocking out their starter in the top of the second, Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. Its hard to describe, because youre not used to seeing that at this level. But that was quite an outburst for us.Springer said, The key to that game was that second inning.When the Astros finally got done running around the bases, they had a victory to savor.I know that this game is going to create some momentum, Altuve said, and were going to keep winning games.Altuve became the first Astro to have 20 homers and 20 steals in a season since Carlos Beltran in 2004.The Orioles, meanwhile, have 11 home runs in the first two games of this series. But Baltimore didnt have enough firepower in this one to overcome its poor pitching, which surrendered a season-high 15 runs and 18 hits.Miley was the most obvious culprit. Staked to a 5-1 lead, he gott two more outs before being lifted.ddddddddddddIt was terrible. Its embarrassing for that to happen, he said. I flat-out stunk.The left-hander is 0-2 with a 9.53 ERA in four starts since being traded from Seattle on July 31.Chris Devenski (2-4) allowed one hit in four innings for the Astros after McHugh yielded seven runs and nine hits in three innings.I dont know if Ive ever been blitzed like that before in my career, the right-hander said. Todays game in general was kind of a crazy.Springer provided a glimpse of things to come by hitting a leadoff homer on the fifth pitch from Miley.After the teams traded five-run innings, Baltimore went up 7-6 in the third and Houston pulled even in the fourth.The Astros took a 9-7 lead against Ubaldo Jimenez (5-10) in the fifth. Hernandez blooped an RBI single to center and Springer greeted Tyler Wilson with a run-scoring single.Pedro Alvarez homered in the bottom half before Houston pulled away in the sixth, getting a two-run homer from Altuve and a solo shot from Gattis.ROSTER MOVESAstros: Optioned reliever James Hoyt to Triple-A Fresno and recalled Brad Peacock from the same club. We need some fresh arms up here, Hinch said.Orioles: Optioned Wilson to Triple-A Norfolk after the game.TRAINERS ROOMAstros: OF Jake Marisnick got the night off as he tries to work through a sore groin. Hes played in only two games since Aug. 11. Hes not moving quite at full speed, Hinch said.Orioles: OF Joey Rickard (thumb) wont be ready to play when rosters expand on Sept. 1, manager Buck Showalter said.UP NEXTAstros: Mike Fiers (8-6, 4.66 ERA) makes his 88th career start Saturday, facing the Orioles for the first time.Orioles: Chris Tillman (15-4, 3.46) gets the call after having his start Wednesday pushed back because of a sore right shoulder. ' ' '