PORTLAND, Ore. _ Four of the top nine players were out with injury. The Cleveland Cavaliers were forced to go small with 6-foot-9 Jeff Green at center and three guards in the starting lineup.
The Portland Trail Blazers boasted the longest active winning streak in the NBA and have been virtually unstoppable in Moda Center.
It seemed like a mismatch, although some would argue that's not possible when LeBron James is on the court.
James carried the undermanned Cavs through the first half and became the sixth active player with 400 double-doubles in his career with 35 points and 14 rebounds. But aided by a 16-4 third-quarter run and 29 points by C.J. McCollum, the Blazers won their 11th consecutive game, 113-105 Thursday night.
The Blazers claimed their eighth consecutive victory at home and improved to 17-1 in the last 18 in Rip City. The Cavs lost their fifth consecutive game in Portland, their last victory coming on Jan. 16, 2013.
The Cavs slipped to 2-3 on a six-game road trip that concludes Saturday in Chicago.
The Cavs got to within 105-102 on a George Hill 3-pointer with 2:58 to play. But Al-Farouq Aminu hit a 3 and after a James' turnover, Evan Turner made a jumper for a 110-102 edge.
Jordan Clarkson cut it to five with a 3 and James had a chance to trim it to three but missed a layup with 33 seconds left.
Damian Lillard, with cheers of "MVP" in the background, sank three free throws, one after a technical foul, to put the game away with 28.8 seconds left.
While it had nothing to do with the outcome, the moment that might be talked about for decades came with 7:02 left in the first quarter.
James added another highlight to his can-you-believe-this reel, which might need a special age 33 edition. He dazzled the crowd with a posterizing slam over Blazers 7-foot center Jusuf Nurkic as Portland's Al-Farouq Aminu watched with his mouth open.
Nurkic obviously couldn't erase the dunk from his mind. After James blocked a Nurkic shot with 50.7 seconds left in the second quarter, Nurkic hit James in the neck area, drawing a foul.
The Blazers' third-quarter surge allowed them to take an 81-66 lead. But the Cavs cut the gap to 81-73 and might have gotten closer, but Kyle Korver's 3-point try went all the way around the rim before falling off.
The Cavs could have helped themselves at the free-throw line, but went 12-of-21 from the stripe, with J.R. Smith and James missing both attempts on third-quarter trips.
McCollum started to heat up in the second quarter, making 5-of-8 shots, 1-of-2 from long range, for 11 points in the period. The Blazers used a 10-2 run, eight of those points by McCollum, to take a 41-36 lead. But James scored 14 of the Cavs' 18 final points, including a 16-foot step back at the buzzer, as the Cavs trailed 59-54 at halftime.
McCollum shot 12-of-24, despite going 3-of-10 from long range. With 24 points and nine assists, three-time All-Star Lillard joined Oscar Robertson and James as the only players in league history with 1,500 points and 400 assists in their first six seasons.
Korver backed James with 19 points, and Green added 16 points and five rebounds and Clarkson scored 14.
The Cavs reserves scored just 22 points. In the Cavs' victory over the Blazers in January, the Cleveland bench had a 61-23 edge.
The Cavs were without forwards Kevin Love (broken left hand) and Cedi Osman (left hip strain) and centers Larry Nance Jr. (right hamstring) and Tristan Thompson (sprained right ankle). Rodney Hood returned after missing two games with a lower back strain, but was limited to 19 minutes and scored five points before tweaking his back.
Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts pointed out that several players who hurt the Blazers in the Cavs' 127-110 win on Jan. 2 in Cleveland were injured Thursday or no longer with the team. That group included Love (19 points, seven rebounds), Isaiah Thomas (17 points), Jae Crowder (17 points), Dwyane Wade (15 points, eight rebounds) and Thompson (10 points, eight rebounds).
