PORTLAND, Ore. _ You know what they say: Trail by the three, win by the three.
The Portland Trail Blazers did as much Thursday night when April came early to March and they defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 108-99 on a night a bit evocative of a springtime playoff game.
With a fourth-quarter comeback that included a flurry of three-pointers they couldn't make to save themselves until then, the Blazers moved within a half game of the West's third-place Wolves.
The Blazers missed their first 13 threes while the Wolves missed their first seven, but the Blazers made five of them when they needed to do so most, in the game's final 10 minutes.
Trailing by six points with 91/ 2 minutes left, Portland reversed course with a 20-4 run fueled by their three-point shooting and made them winners for the seventh time in their last eight games.
Blazers All-Star guard Damian Lillard started March when he left February off. After he averaged 31.4 points that month, Lillard scored 35 points Thursday, even if he needed 22 shots to do so.
Thirteen of them came in the fourth quarter alone.
The Blazers overcame Wolves center Karl-Anthony's 34-point, 17-rebound game, which was one point short of season scoring high.
Lillard missed his first seven three-pointers and at one point was 6-for-18 from the field, but his jumper tied the score at 86 with 6:12 left after teammate Shabazz Napier's five consecutive points scored helped the Blazers turn a six-point deficit with 9{ minutes left into an 84-82 left with eight minutes left.
As he had in past games, Blazers coach Terry Stotts used quickness rather than size and strength in an attempt to slow Towns. He called upon forward Al-Farouq Aminu to play a center on television during TNT's national telecast and also asked Ed Davis to do so while Blazers big man Jusuf Nurkic defended Gorgui Dieng most of the night.
"We've seen that quite a bit," Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said before the game. "That's the great value in having a guy like Karl: You can play in the post. You can play him on the perimeter. You can play him in pick-and-rolls. Aminu is a terrific defender, too, and he's got great feet. We've seen quite a bit of 4s (power forwards) on KAT."
It worked better than the Blazers started raining threes near game's end.
With star Jimmy Butler rehabilitating his injured knee back home and Shabazz Muhammad waived Thursday evening, the Wolves suited up just 10 players and played nine of them, if you count Marcus Georges-Hunt's 15 seconds played in the first quarter. They finished the game without veteran forward Taj Gibson, who left late in the game with a left hip contusion.
Thursday's game started a daunting eight-game stretch in the next three weeks that could go a long way toward determining their playoff seeding, or if they make the playoffs at all.
The Wolves play Western Conference competitors Portland and Utah on consecutive nights and after a rare five-day break in their schedule, they'll play Boston, Golden State, Washington, San Antonio, Houston and the L.A. Clippers before they face a team (New York) with a losing record.
Before Thursday's game, Towns was reminded it's March and was asked if such important games forthcoming made him feel like it.
"March?" asked Towns, who would have celebrated his Senior Night at Kentucky on Wednesday if he hadn't left after one season. "I ain't in college no more. March is March. We have to play the game. Every game is important. The first five games of the season are just as important as these games are now...We just feel we have to go out there and play. It's another game. We can't put any more pressure or importance on any game but the one we play tonight. It doesn't matter who it is, if it's Portland, Utah. Whoever that opponent is that night, that's what we focus on."
Tight as a snare drum, the two teams shot as if it was a game that mattered plenty.
They combined to miss their first 18 three-pointers and neither made one until Towns' three with 2:15 left before halftime gave his team a 47-38 lead that they couldn't firmly grasp and keep.
By the time the Blazers scored seven of the half's final nine points, they trailed 49-44 even though they missed all 13 three-pointers they shot and the Wolves went just 1-for-8 themselves.
By then, Lillard was 2-for-12 from the field and hadn't made one of six three-pointers he shot. He didn't make this first three until midway through the third quarter and by then the Wolves had built an 11-point, second-quarter lead that almost got away back to seven points, at 66-59 with four minutes gone in the second half.
Towns reached his 28th career 30-point, 10-rebound game with more than four minutes still left in the third quarter and shortly thereafter the Wolves pushed their lead to 10 points three times late in the third.
The last time came at 78-68 with a minute left in the third quarter, and with Towns getting a rest on the bench. But before you knew it, the Blazers scored the quarter's final seven points, including Lillard's second consecutive made three-pointer and Ed Davis' layup just before the buzzer.
