DALLAS (AP) - C.J. McCollum scored 32 points, the last two on a runner in the lane with 0.9 seconds left to give the Portland Trail Blazers a 114-113 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night.
McCollum’s shot capped a final minute in which the two teams traded leads six times and Dirk Nowitzki hit two clutch 3-pointers, the second a potential game-winner with 3.9 seconds left. McCollum scored Portland’s last seven points.
Damian Lillard added 29 points for the Blazers, who tied their season series with the Mavericks at 2-2 - each team winning twice on the others’ home floor.
Harrison Barnes had 26 points and Nowitzki 25 for Dallas.
The two teams, battling for the eighth and final playoff spot, see-sawed through a tense fourth quarter, trading 13-0 runs at one point. Portland led 101-89 before the Mavericks answered the Blazers’ run with one of their own.
Neither team led by more than two points after that.
Nowitzki’s 3 with 38.9 seconds left gave Dallas a 108-107 lead and prompted a fist pump from the veteran, who was coming off four games of below double figures for only the second time since his rookie season.
But McCollum was just getting started. He hit a short jumper, then answered a Devin Harris counter with a three-point play to make it 112-110 with 12.3 seconds to play before Nowitzki hit another long ball.
With forward Evan Turner suffering a broken right hand in the third quarter and Allen Crabbe in foul trouble, it was left to Lillard and McCollum to carry the Blazers’ offense.
Nowitzki moved into 10th place all-time in field goals with 10,517.
Lillard scored 22 points in the first half, including back-to-back 3s during a 16-2, second-quarter run that gave Portland a 60-44 lead.
TIP-INS:
Trail Blazers: Turner had 11 points but left the game with 5:08 remaining in the third quarter and did not return. . During their big 16-2 run in the second quarter, both McCollum and Plumlee scored on alley-oop dunks. McCollum’s came directly off an inbounds pass from the right wing. … Lillard shot just 4-for-20 in the Blazers’ loss to the Mavericks on Friday. He made four field goals on his first six shots in the first quarter Tuesday.
Mavericks: Seth Curry injured his left shoulder in a collision with Portland’s Mason Plumlee with 8:49 left in the third quarter. He went to the locker room but returned to the game four minutes later and finished with four points. . Nowitzki’s two blocked shots gave him 1,200 for this career, the 55th player in NBA history to reach that figure.
MAKING IT OFFICIAL
After helping the Mavericks to a 4-1 record on a 10-day contract, Ferrell signed his two-year contract Tuesday, calling it “one of the happiest days of my life.”
Dallas owner Mark Cuban said the team didn’t want to risk having to bid for Ferrell’s services after the contract or a subsequent 10-day expired.
“I wasn’t going to find out (if other teams were interested),” Cuban said. “There’s just no reason to find out.”
Ferrell averaged 17 points and five assists in his first five games with the Mavericks, numbers that earned the endorsement of his fellow Indiana graduate Cuban.
“It’s a mockery within a travesty within a transmogrification that he wasn’t NBA Player of the Week,” Cuban said.
UP NEXT
Trail Blazers: Home on Thursday against the Celtics, whom they have beaten in six of the teams’ last eight meetings.
Mavericks: Continue their four-game homestand Thursday against Utah, whom they have not beaten in three tries this season.
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