NBA: Atlanta's Hardaway, Portland's McCollum Win With Career Highs

LOS ANGELES, Jan 2, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 02nd Jan, 2017 ) - Tim Hardaway and CJ McCollum both enjoyed career nights Sunday as the Atlanta Hawks surprised the first-place San Antonio Spurs while McCollum carried the Portland Trail Blazers to a come-from-behind victory.

McCollum scored a career-high 43 points as the Trail Blazers rallied past Minnesota 95-89 and Hardaway tallied 29 points, matching his all-time best total, to push the Hawks over the Spurs 114-112 in overtime.

McCollum, who reached his previous best of 37 points twice, shot 16-of-25 from the field to set a career high for field goals. Averaging 27.1 points in his last eight contests, McCollum and this was his fourth consecutive game scoring over 20 points in place of Damian Lillard, who injured his ankle on December 23.

McCollum has scored 30 points in seven games this season. Canadian Andrew Wiggins led Minnesota with 24 points while the young Timberwolves trio of Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Zach LaVine combined for 48 points after getting 73 together on Friday against Milwaukee.

Towns finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double in a row and 24th of the season. Portland quickly rallied from a 12-point half-time deficit with a 14-2 run to tie the game at 51-51 on a McCollum's jumper.

McCollum scored 16 points in the third and the Trail Blazers took a 69-64 lead into the fourth Portland never trailed in the final quarter and led by as many as eight points in the closing 12 minutes.