"I trust my training, I trust my shot. It's a movement that I work every day and entered." In the Raptors' pavilion, before the current champions, Carmelo Anthony decided to win Portland with a three-second pitch for the horn (99-101). The same old suspension, with that silk swing, which last November convinced Blazers managers to grant a new opportunity to the eaves, 35, who had just spent more than a year off the tracks.

Anthony's 28 points, his top of the season, were decisive in the Scotiabank Arena, where his team improved their very poor statistics against opponents with a positive balance of victories. "This is a great moral rearmament for the team," said the shooter. In the eight games in which he scored at least 20 points, the Blazers added five wins.

"It was only a matter of time. When I saw him hollow before the defender and saw how he got up, I knew he would score," said Damian Lillard, the star of the Blazers, author of 20 points and nine assists on a night where Hassan Whiteside also shone (14 points, 16 rebounds).

Triple Grant from Lillard

The success from the perimeter was crucial in the comeback of the Blazers, who in the absence of eight minutes to the end fell by 12 points (85-73). However, a distant triple from Lillard in the absence of 38 seconds placed 99-99, preluded from the definitive basket of Carmel. The last final attempt of Kyle Lowry, who could not balance himself, was spitted out by the hoop.

Lowry's 24 points and 10 rebounds were not enough for Nick Nurse's team, which reported a foul on attack in the aforementioned triple Lillard. The absence of Fred VanVleet, victim of a muscular problem, further reduced the staff of the champions, who can not count in recent times with three of their owners (Norman Powell, Marc Gasol and Pascal Siakam).

Serge Ibaka's efforts (17 points, 11 rebounds) also failed to bear fruit in Toronto, where a minute of silence was kept in memory of David Stern, who died on New Year's Day.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • NBA
  • sports
  • basketball

NBALThe 47 points of Harden lengthen the agony of some Suns without Ricky Rubio

NBADavis and his particular vile before the Pelicans

Euroleague Real Madrid rummages in Baskonia's wound