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76ers get past Trail Blazers in OT

Mar 24, 2009 - 6:37 AM PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) -- Philadelphia needed a little extra time to finish up an impressive West Coast road trip.

Andre Miller had 27 points and 10 rebounds and scored the go-ahead basket with 1:56 remaining in overtime as Philadelphia rallied for a 114-108 win over Portland on Monday night.

The Sixers (36-33) won three of five games on their trip, including wins over playoff-bound teams Portland and the Los Angeles Lakers. Philadelphia blew a 14-point halftime lead, but rallied during the final seconds of the fourth quarter, and then again in overtime to beat one of the NBA's best home-court teams in Portland.

"I think this shows the growth of our team," Philadelphia coach Tony DiLeo, "to go into Los Angeles and beat the Lakers, then come here where they have a great home record and win in overtime."

The first-year Sixers coach said close games like Monday's were often contests Philadelphia lost earlier in the season.

"We're doing a better job of finishing out the games, especially our free-throw shooting," said DiLeo, whose team made 35 of 39 free throws against Portland.

Philadelphia relied on a three-man performance to pull out the win as Miller, Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young combined to score 77 points. Iguodala and Young scored 25 points each. Young made 10 of 15 shots and scored 17 points during the second half and overtime.

The Sixers got off to a torrid start, hitting 13 of 16 shots to lead 31-26 after the first quarter. The fast start carried through the first half for the Sixers, who led 58-44 at halftime.

Philadelphia also shut down Portland's Brandon Roy. The Sixers held the Blazers' All-Star guard to 12 points, ending his personal streak of consecutive 20-point or more performances at 12.

"We've had to guard a lot of guys lately. We had Kobe and Dwyane Wade back-to-back," Iguodala said. "What we tried to do is not try to stop a guy, you just try to make them work."

The loss wasn't unexpected for Portland, which returned from an East Coast road trip in which it played five games in seven days last week. The Blazers (44-27) are tied for second place with Utah in the Northwest Division, one game behind first-place Denver.

Portland coach Nate McMillan didn't think it was dead legs as much as the Blazers' offensive mind-set. The Blazers tied a season high by taking 34 3-point shots. The passive attack resulted in only 17 free throws for Portland, as opposed to 39 for the Sixers.

"We played the perimeter instead of going to the basket, and it cost us," McMillan said.

Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge had 24 points and 12 rebounds, while Steve Blake scored 22 points.

The Blazers shot just 1-of-14 from 3-point range during the first half, but the Blazers shot themselves back into contention after halftime. Blake hit three consecutive 3-pointers during a late third-quarter run that cut Philadelphia's lead to 74-72. Then, trailing 79-72 early in the fourth quarter, Rudy Fernandez made a pair of 3-pointers to fuel a 13-0 run to give the Blazers an 85-79 lead.

Philadelphia responded with a spurt of its own, a 15-6 run that gave the Sixers a 94-91 lead with 2:50 remaining. Iguodala later hit two free throws with 20 seconds remaining to tie it at 98 and force overtime.