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Lillard makes last-second bucket as Blazers edge Pistons

Dec 16, 2013 - 2:24 AM Auburn Hills, MI (SportsNetwork.com) - Damian Lillard didn't shoot as well as he does on most nights, but the second-year point guard made the biggest shot when it mattered the most.

Lillard finished with 23 points on 6-of-21 shooting, including 0-for-7 from beyond the arc, and hit the game-winning jumper with less than a second left in overtime to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 111-109 win over the Detroit Pistons from the Palace at Auburn Hills.

Following a Rodney Stuckey bucket that tied the game at 109, Lillard drove the lane, spun to his right at the foul line and buried the turnaround jumper with Stuckey draped all over him.

LaMarcus Aldridge and Robin Lopez each posted a double-double as Aldridge finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds, while Lopez added 12 points and 13 boards.

Josh Smith paced all scorers with 31 points for Detroit, which was swept in the season series and lost its third consecutive game overall against Portland.

Greg Monroe scored 17 points, Andre Drummond netted 13 with 14 rebounds, and Stuckey tallied 17 points off the bench.

Detroit used a 20-2 run to take a 42-35 lead midway through the second quarter thanks to Smith. The forward scored eight points during the spurt and hooked up with Drummond on a nice alley-oop. Smith drove furiously into the lane and lobbed it up to a trailing Drummond, who threw it down.

Detroit led 51-50 at half.

Detroit slowly built a lead in the third as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's triple midway through the stanza gave them a 71-62 advantage. The Pistons outscored the Blazers 7-2 in the final 2:39 of the third and brought an 84-73 lead into the fourth.

Stuckey hit a trey to open the fourth which gave the Pistons their largest lead at 13.

Later, Aldridge hit a pair of free throws and trimmed the deficit to two, 94-92, but Smith answered at the other end with a three-point play.

The lead was three for Detroit with just under a minute left when Lillard dove to the floor to grab possession after he knocked it away from Jennings.

Lillard called timeout and he hit 1-of-2 from the line on the ensuing possession to make it a two-point game, but the Pistons knocked it out of bounds to Portland with 36.9 seconds left.

Nicolas Batum shot an air-ball on a three, but Kyle Singler was called for a loose-ball foul. Matthews hit both free throws to tie the game at 99 with 30.8 to play.

Stuckey's floater was long and Lopez pulled in the rebound with 11 seconds left.

Lillard lost the ball as he drove the lane on Portland's chance at the win and the game headed to overtime with sloppy play at the end of regulation.

Game Notes

Portland, the NBA's best shooting team from beyond the arc at 41.9 percent, went just 7-of-26 (26.9 percent) ... Detroit outrebounded the Blazers 53-47 ... Brandon Jennings scored 15 points with 10 assists in the loss.