PORTLAND, Ore. -- The scoreboard may say victory, but Damian Lillard sees work to do.Lillard scored 38 points, making key free throws in the waning seconds, and the Portland Trail Blazers held off the Phoenix Suns for a 124-121 victory on Tuesday night.After leading by 18 points early, it shouldnt have been so close at the end, Lillard said.We talk about just being able to play the way we want to play for longer spans of time, he said. Well play really well for seven minutes, and then in four minutes well give up a 15-2 run and give up everything we just worked for. We got to continue to work on that. The good thing is, were able to find a way to win games while we work on it.CJ McCollum added 33 points for the Blazers, who have won three straight.Lillard hit a 3-pointer with 6:45 left that put Portland in front 101-95. Eric Bledsoe made a free throw to pull Phoenix within 115-114 with just under a minute left, but he missed the second attempt that would have tied it and Lillard scored a layup on the other end.Bledsoe hit two free throws to again get within a point, but Lillard was fouled with 13.3 seconds left and made both to put Portland up 119-116.Devin Booker made a 3-pointer that pulled the Suns within 122-121 but Lillard again hit two free throws with 3.7 seconds left and Booker missed from some 25 feet has time ran out.Bledsoe finished with 31 points and Booker had 23.Its not tough for us to come back, we come back a lot, Suns coach Earl Watson said. Thats what we do. Our team is really close and we have a lot of belief.The Suns, who opened the season with four straight losses before winning two of their last three, were without Tyson Chandler because of personal reasons. Chandler has been in double-digit rebounds in three of the last four games.Watson started rookie Marquese Chriss, who was making his first career start. Chriss, who finished with seven points, was a first-round draft pick (eighth overall) out of Washington by the Sacramento Kings, acquired by the Suns in a draft-day trade.Portland was hurt when they lost starting forward Al-Farouq Aminu to a left calf strain early and he did not return. Aminu is averaging seven points and 7.9 rebounds this season.Aminu said after the game that he was unlikely to play on Wednesday when the Blazers visit the Clippers.McCollum hit his first six shots, including three 3-pointers, and the Blazers jumped out to a 27-12 lead. McCollum matched his career high with 37 points in Portlands 100-94 victory at Memphis on Sunday.Booker had 39 points in the Suns 119-108 loss at the Lakers on Sunday, after scoring 38 in a 112-111 overtime victory over New Orleans on Friday, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to have back-to-back games with at least 38 points.TIP-INSSuns: The Suns beat the Blazers 118-115 in overtime last week in Phoenix. The teams play four games this season.Trail Blazers: Portland made 12 of its first 13 field goal attempts. ... It was the second time in his career that McCollum has had back-to-back games with 30 or more points.MENTOR AND FRIEND: Watson played his final NBA season with Portland and grew close to Lillard. The summer before last, when the Blazers lost four starters and Lillard was the last remaining starter on the roster, Watson said the two talked and he told Lillard he needed to be a leader on and off the court. Lillard responded by organizing a team bonding trip to San Diego and the young Blazers went on to go 44-38 and advance to the second round of the playoffs.That is when you saw this young group become something else, Watson said.FAST START: Lillard has scored 262 points so far this season, the most through the first eight games of a season in franchise history. It is also the most by an NBA player since Kobe Bryant had 264 through the first eight in 2009-10.UP NEXTSuns: Host the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night.Trail Blazers: Visit the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night. The Clippers beat the Blazers in Portland 114-106 on Oct. 27. Travis Konecny Jersey .C. - The Carolina Hurricanes have placed backup goalie Anton Khudobin on injured reserve with an unspecified lower-body injury. Ron Hextall Jersey . The Lightning are 2-0 so far on a four-game road trip, giving the club five straight wins as the guest and improving Tampas away record this season to 11-8-2. http://www.hockeyflyersauthentic.com/ . -- Team after team passed on Andre Ellington in the draft. Eric Lindros Jersey .com) - The Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks both take aim at their first wins of the season on Saturday, as the Canucks open their home slate at Rogers Arena. Ivan Provorov Jersey . Siddikur, whose previous win on the circuit came in Brunei three years ago, finished his bogey-free round with a birdie on the 18th for a total of 17-under 199. Indias Shiv Chowrasia, who has finished runner-up in this tournament twice, was in second place after a 66. ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The NHLs best team will seek to exploit a struggling opponent when the Montreal Canadiens meet the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night at the Honda Center.The Canadiens enter the game with 16 wins and 34 points, both league highs. Montreal owned an even better record at this time last season, when the club won its first nine games to set a team record while going 18-4-2 through Nov. 27 of last year.But the loss of goalie Carey Price sabotaged the Canadiens playoff hopes. Price strained his right medial collateral ligament last Nov. 25 against the New York Rangers and missed the rest of the season. As a result, Montreal won only 20 of its final 58 games and finished sixth in the Atlantic Division.This season, however, Price is back among the leagues elite. The 2015 winner of the Hart and Vezina trophies leads the NHL with 13 wins, holds second place with a .947 save percentage and shares third place with a 1.66 goals-against average.Supporting Price on defense is Shea Weber, who came from the Nashville Predators in exchange for P.K. Subban, a former Norris Trophy winner. All Weber has done is amass a league-high seven power-play goals and compile a plus-18 rating, the best among NHL defensemen, while joining Alexei Emelin to form a physically intimidating pairing.Theyre very demanding to play against, Canadiens coach Michel Therrien told the Montreal Gazette.Offensively, center Alex Galchenyuk is on pace to exceed the career highs of 30 goals and 56 points he established last season. Galchenyuk, 22, has nine goals and 22 points in 22 games. Right winger Alexander Radulov returned to the NHL after five seasons in Russsias Kontinental Hockey League and has nine points in his past eight games playing alongside Galchenyuk.dddddddddddd.Tuesday nights game is the second in a five-game road trip, the teams longest this season. Montreal began the excursion with a 2-1 overtime victory against the Detroit Red Wings.Its a trip thats coming at just the right time for us, Therrien told the Gazette. Its going to be tough. Well face good teams and Im eager to see how we respond. Weve been playing with confidence but well take things one game at a time.The Canadiens will face an opponent that remains a work in progress. Anaheim broke a three-game losing streak Saturday night with a 3-2 victory in San Jose.It feels good, Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf told the Orange County Register. Weve got to feel good about ourselves and try and carry that over. Remember that feeling. Remember the work that went into it. Try and carry it over to the next one.Getzlaf also ended a stretch of personal futility by scoring his first goal in 15 games Saturday night. The goal was just Getzlafs second of the season. Right winger Corey Perry has failed to score in 14 successive games. Yet Rickard Rakell owns eight goals and 12 points in 13 games, and fellow Swede Jakob Silfverberg has five goals and 11 points in his past 11 appearances.We havent done enough consistently with the puck to say that were happy or satisfied, Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle told the Register and added that one problem is having everybody on the same page on a play that we have on. ' ' '