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LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Portland Trail Blazers are hoping theyve put all the bad habits behind them with the playoffs on the horizon. And with a healthy LaMarcus Aldridge providing his usual numbers, they are confident that they can make some noise in the post-season — with or without home-court advantage. Damian Lillard scored 34 points, Aldridge had 31 points and 15 rebounds, and the Blazers beat the Los Angeles Lakers 124-112 Tuesday night. "We had a rough stretch, but now weve kind of picked it back up and were going in the right direction at the perfect time," Lillard said. "Now that were close to the post-season, we want to have that rhythm going into the playoffs — because thats what we play the regular season for." The Blazers fourth straight win, coupled with Houstons loss at Brooklyn, moved Portland within 1 1/2 games of the Rockets for fourth place in the Western Conference and home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs. The Rockets have three games in hand. The Blazers have six games left on their schedule, five of them at home. One more win will give them their 12th 50-win season in the franchises 44-year history. But the last four times the team won 50 or more games, they didnt make it past the first round of the post-season. "We dont have a lot of control over that. Right now, its about winning every game and gearing up for the playoffs," coach Terry Stotts said. "Its that mindset thats the most important thing. Whatever happens with the seedings and all that — I mean, we havent even clinched a playoff spot yet." Nick Young, the fifth and last player off the Los Angeles bench, made his first eight shots and finished 15 for 26 with a season-high 40 points. But it wasnt enough to prevent the Lakers 10th defeat in 14 games. They slipped to 25-49 — the most losses by the club since finishing 33-49 in 1993-94. The franchise hasnt lost 50 games in a season since 1974-75 (30-52). "I didnt know I made my first eight shots," Young said. "I just got into a zone. I got into a rhythm kind of fast." Youngs point total was the highest off the bench by any player in the league this season, surpassing the 37 Jamal Crawford had for the Clippers on Jan. 25 at Toronto. Youngs high-point game in the NBA was 43, for the Washington Wizards against Sacramento on Jan. 11, 2011. "Nick Young had a lot of easy shots in the first half," Aldridge said. "Hes a great scorer, so hes going to score. But we did a better job in the second half of making his shots harder." Aldridge, playing his fourth game after missing the previous seven because of a bruised lower back, hit a 13-footer to cap an 18-9 run that extended Portlands two-point halftime margin to 81-70 at the midway mark of the third quarter. Young kept the Lakers within striking distance with his 3-point shooting, draining one with 10:47 left in the game to pull them within 93-86. But Lillard responded with a pair of 3-pointers 28 seconds apart to extend Portlands margin to 13 points, and Los Angeles got no closer than nine the rest of the way. "Coming in, we felt this could be a trap game against a team thats not in the playoff race. But we knew coming in that they were a dangerous team," Lillard said. The Lakers were bolstered by the return of Xavier Henry and two-time MVP Steve Nash, who played in only his 13th game of the season and came off the bench for just the third time in his 18-year career. Nash, who turned 40 on Feb. 7, had 10 points and 10 assists in 22 minutes. The eight-time All-Star has been plagued most of the season by nerve root irritation following his comeback from a broken left leg, which led to issues with his back, hip and hamstrings. NOTES: Lillard became the first player in Trail Blazers history to make 200 3-pointers in a season when he connected with 8:07 left in the first quarter. Wesley Matthews is close behind him with 186. ... The Lakers played before their eighth non-sellout crowd. Before this season, they had sold out every home game since Dec. 6, 2006. ... Portland C Meyers Leonard was ejected after his flagrant 2 foul on Kendall Marshall with 39.9 seconds to play. ... Portland C Robin Lopez had 10 points and 10 rebounds on his 26th birthday. Justise Winslow Jersey . -- Mississippi State was crushed twice by Florida last season, once by 35 points and the other by 25. Cheap Swingman Heat Jerseys .ca. Hi Mr. Fraser, When I was watching the Heritage Classic in Vancouver there was a play midway through the third where Ottawa crashed the Canucks net and it came off its moorings. http://www.cheapheatjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-glen-rice-jersey . So they rushed to re-sign the first baseman who general manager Ben Cherington described Friday as "a unique player." The World Series champions finalized a $32 million, two-year agreement Thursday with the slugging former catcher who turned into a surprisingly good defender. James Johnson Jersey . Wearing bib No. 1, Maze skied through the gates cleanly to defend her big first-run lead and finish 0.07 seconds ahead of Anna Fenninger of Austria. Defending champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany was third, trailing 0. Wholesale Heat Jerseys . Jeter doubled high off the left-field wall and scored on Jacoby Ellsburys first hit in pinstripes in the fifth. Hiroki Kuroda (1-1) pitched 6 1-3 sharp innings in the Yankees 112th opener in New York. In what manager Joe Girardi said would be a season-long lovefest for Jeter, the shortstop was cheered every step of the way by an adoring crowd of 48, 142 -- even when his double-play grounder back to Orioles starter Ubaldo Jimenez (0-2) scored Solarte in the third inning for the first run. PHOENIX -- Eric Bledsoe and the Phoenix Suns are getting comfortable with playing close games. Bledsoe scored 24 points and Markieff Morris came off the bench to score 23 as the Suns pulled away from the New Orleans Pelicans 101-94 on Sunday night. "Were just a young team and we play extremely hard," Bledsoe said. "Even though things werent going our way, we fought through." Bledsoe hit a long 3-pointer with one second left on the shot clock to give the Suns a 95-85 lead with 1:25 to go. "I just locked in a little bit," Bledsoe said. "I saw time was running down and I wasnt shooting well from 3, but I locked in a shot it with confidence." Morris similarly has upped his game. He shot 9 of 12, and has gone 30 for 38 from the field over his past three games while averaging 24.7 points in that span and playing solid defence. "The first two years I couldnt play without fouling," Morris said. "I watched a lot of film and became a student of the game. I saw why I was picking up dumb fouls. Its a matter of doing the work early." Morris is only the third player since 1989 to notch three consecutive games shooting at least 75 per cent from the floor while taking at least 12 shots, joining Dwight Howard and Charles Barkley. Gerald Green scored 15 and Goran Dragic added 12 for the Suns, who have won four of five. Suns coach Jeff Hornacek became the first coach in franchise history to win his first four home games. Jason Smith scored 22 points while Jrue Holiday and Anthony Morrow each had 16 for the Pelicans. Anthony Davis, who entered the game averaging 23 points and 11.5 rebounds per game, was held to 14 and 12. "Most of the game it was easy for other guys on their team to get shots so they didnt need to feed him too often," Hornacek said. Morrows long jump shot with 6:30 remaining pulled New Orleans within 80-79, but he missed a 3-pointer that could have given the Pelicans their first lead since the final 90 seconds of the first half.dddddddddddd After Brian Roberts missed a second-chance jumper following an offensive rebound by Davis, the Suns sprinted downcourt and Morris hit a 3-pointer from the left wing. Morris added a dunk and Phoenix went on a 9-2 run to open an 89-81 lead with 3:31 to go. "Weve got to continue to stay with it," Morrow said. "These grind it out games are good for us where were the youngest team in the NBA. I think we are just ticking up. We have to keep it going." Eric Gordons 3-pointer made it a five-point game, but Dragic and Bledsoe hit 3-pointers to extend the Suns lead to ten. The Suns, who missed their first 10 3-point attempts and made only one 3-pointer through the first three quarters, went 5 of 9 from beyond the arc in the fourth. The Pelicans pulled even at 65 on a layup by Davis with 1:23 left in the third period, but Morris scored the last six points of the quarter to take a 71-65 lead into the fourth. "We just didnt have our best stuff tonight," Pelicans coach Monty Williams said. "You could complain about the whistles but thats not going to get you anywhere. We didnt make an effort to get to the basket. We fell in love with jump shots and didnt finish around the basket." NOTES: Dragic returned after missing three games with a sprained left ankle. ... Phoenix led 19-16 after the first quarter despite shooting 33.3 per cent from the floor. ... Smiths 14 first-half points matched his full-game season high and he broke the 20-point mark for the fifth time in his career. .. Morrow was the only New Orleans player to score off the bench in the first half, scoring eight points while the Pelicans other five bench players went 0 for 8 from the floor in 21 combined minutes. ... New Orleans didnt attempt a free throw in the first half. ... Bledsoes four 20-plus point games match the total he had in 197 career games entering the season. ... Phoenix has won five straight at home. 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