The Cleveland Cavaliers erased an 18-point deficit to beat the Portland Trail Blazers 133-129 in an NBA overtime thriller, boosting their league-best record with a 10th straight victory on Sunday as Boston beat Denver in a clash of the past two champions.
De'Andre Hunter, getting a starting nod as Cavs star Donovan Mitchell rested, scored 18 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as Cleveland poured it on late to grab their 50th win of the season against 10 defeats.
"Made open shots, tried to get to the rim and get fouled," Hunter said of his late-game heroics, which saw him give Cleveland the lead for good with a three-pointer that put them up 131-129 with 30.8 seconds remaining in overtime
Hunter, acquired from Atlanta at the trade deadline, then came up with a steal and grabbed a rebound when Portland's Deni Avdija missed a three-pointer. Finally Hunter drilled a pair of free-throws to seal the win.
Ty Jerome scored 25 points off the bench for Cleveland as six Cavs players scored in double figures.
Avdija led Portland with 30 points and added 12 rebounds and 10 assists for his first career triple-double. Anfernee Simons scored 27 points for the Blazers, who led most of the first half in pursuit of a fifth straight win.
After Cleveland edged ahead 42-39 on Darius Garland's jump shot, Portland closed the first half on a 15-0 scoring run that sent them into the locker room leading 54-42.
The Cavs pulled level at 101-101 with 5:43 left in the fourth quarter, and they traded the lead three more times before Simons made a pair of free-throws that tied it at 119-119 to send it to overtime.
"We're a resilient group," said Jerome, admitting the Cavs' come-from-behind win over the Celtics in Boston on Friday had taken it out of them.
"And that's a good team," he added of the Blazers. "We just had to stay with it and make some shots."
- Celtics hang on -
In Boston, the Celtics let a big lead get away before holding off the Nuggets 110-103.
Jaylen Brown scored 22 points and handed out eight assists to leading the reigning champion Celtics, who led by as many as 20 points in the third quarter only for Denver to pull within three points in the waning minutes.
Jamal Murray scored 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter to key the comeback, his driving layup off a rebound of a Brown miss pulling the Nuggets within 102-99 with 1:15 remaining.
NBA Most valuable Player Nikola Jokic scored 20 points with 14 rebounds and nine assists for the 2023 champion Nuggets, but the Celtics came up with the shots when they needed them to snap a two-game skid.
Veteran Al Horford finished with 19 points, Derrick White added 17 and Jayson Tatum had a relatively modest 16 with 11 rebounds and seven assists.
"Defensively, I thought we were good tonight," Brown said. "Offensively we missed some good looks.I missed some layups, I missed some open shots, but we were able to hang on."
bb
