OKLAHOMA CITY — The Portland Trail Blazers overcame Russell Westbrook’s career-high 58 points to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 126-121 on Tuesday night.
Allen Crabbe scored 23 points, Damian Lillard had 22 and C.J. McCollum 21 for the Trail Blazers, who won their third straight.
Westbrook shot 21 of 39, but just 6 of 15 in the fourth quarter. Westbrook entered the game as the league leader in points and plus/minus score in the last five minutes of regulation and overtime.
Westbrook also finished the game with nine assists and made 13 of 16 free throws.
MAVERICKS 122, LAKERS 111: Dirk Nowitzki scored the 20 points he needed for 30,000 in his career in barely more than a quarter, and host Dallas celebrated with its second straight easy home win over Los Angeles.
Nowitzki became the sixth NBA player and the first international one to reach the milestone, joining four Hall of Famers and a future one in Kobe Bryant. Nowitzki is one of three to score all 30,000-plus with one team. The others are Karl Malone (Utah) and Bryant (Lakers).
NOTES
LAKERS: Longtime agent Rob Pelinka was formally hired as the new general manager.
Pelinka got the job shortly after Lakers owner Jeanie Buss fired GM Mitch Kupchak and her brother, Jim, as the club’s top basketball executives last month. The team waited to announce the hiring until Pelinka complied with NBA rules against conflicts of interest, in part by transferring responsibility for his clients to other agents in his firm, Landmark Sports Agency.
Pelinka is the longtime agent of Kobe Bryant, who completed his Lakers career last season. Pelinka now will work for Magic Johnson, hired by Jeanie Buss last month to be the president of basketball operations for a 16-time NBA champion franchise currently wrapping up the worst four-year stretch in team history.
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