<p>NEW YORK &mdash; Damian Lillard had 32 points, nine assists and seven rebounds, and the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Brooklyn Nets 128-109 on Friday night to remain unbeaten halfway through an important road trip.</p>
<p>Lillard scored 22 points in the second half as the Blazers broke away late in the third quarter to snap the Nets’ four-game winning streak.</p>
<p>Jusuf Nurkic added 23 points and 11 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who are 3-0 on their trip as they try to fight their way out of seventh place in the Western Conference and avoid having to appear in the play-in tournament.</p>
<p>Kyrie Irving had 28 points for the Nets, who rested Kevin Durant after he scored 42 points at Indiana on Thursday.</p>
<p>Brooklyn had its lead over Philadelphia for the East No. 1 seed cut to a half-game ahead of a five-game trip that starts Sunday with the first of a pair of games in Milwaukee. The Nets aren’t home again until the last week of the regular season.</p>
<p>The Blazers started their trip with a 133-112 rout at Indiana and a 130-109 victory at Memphis, winning consecutive road games by 20-plus points for the first time in two years.</p>
<p>They could have gotten there again, but Harry Giles was called for a technical foul with the Blazers up 20 with 10.2 seconds left.</p>
<p>Leading by one with about 4 1/2 minutes left in the third, Portland opened the first sizeable cushion for either team with an 18-4 run. Lillard hit a pair of 3-pointers from beyond 30 feet in the spurt, including a 34-footer that capped it and gave the Blazers a 94-79 lead. </p>
<p>Portland put it away with another big spurt after leading by eight with just over nine minutes remaining.</p>
<p>Nurkic had 16 points in the first half and it should have been 18. His missed dunk in the closing seconds left the Blazers with just a 59-57 lead at the break.</p>
<p>TIP-INS</p>
<p>Trail Blazers: Norman Powell scored 19 points and Carmelo Anthony had 15. … Portland picked up a national TV appearance Friday, when its home game against the Lakers next Friday was added to the ESPN schedule.</p>
<p>Nets: Coach Steve Nash said Durant told him when they spoke earlier Friday that he wanted to play in the game. “So I had to be the Grinch and tell him that that’s not on,” said Nash, who has said his preference is that Durant not play both ends of back-to-backs. … G Bruce Brown missed his third straight game with right knee soreness but Nash said all indications were that he would play Sunday.</p>
<p>HOPE FOR HARDEN?</p>
<p>James Harden missed his 13th straight game with a strained right hamstring and Nash said he’s “probably still a ways away” from returning. Nash said he didn’t see any point in speculating whether Harden would play again in the regular season.</p>
<p>“So let me avoid the question and say we’ll see,” Nash said.</p>
<p>UP NEXT</p>
<p>Trail Blazers: Visit Boston on Sunday.</p>
<p>Nets: Start two-game series at Milwaukee on Sunday.</p>
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