Atlanta Hawks forward John Collins (20) comes down with a rebound against Jake Layman (10), Evan Turner (1) and other Portland Trail Blazers players during Friday night's game in Atlanta.ATLANTA - Damian Lillard said the Portland Trail Blazers are making the best of a tough situation after C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic went down with injuries.
"I just like the fact that we continue to roll," Lillard said. "Obviously with C.J. being out is a blow and Nurkic being out is a blow, but we haven't used it as a crutch or excuse. We haven't put our heads down and pouted about it. We just kept working and kept going after it."
Lillard scored 36 points, Al-Farouq Aminu added 17 with 11 rebounds and the Trail Blazers extended their winning streak to a season-high six games with a 118-98 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night.
Portland took charge with a 16-0 run in the third quarter that pushed its lead to 21 points. The Hawks pulled within 10 early in the fourth on rookie point guard Trae Young's runner, but Zach Collins' dunk and Jake Layman's difficult three-point play for Portland made it 97-82 to remove any remaining suspense.
Lillard, with his 26th game of at least 30 points, outplayed Young, who scored 18 of his 26 points in the first quarter.
"I thought we did a good job of limiting them to one shot," Lillard said about the second half. "They weren't getting second and third opportunities. We were physical. We recognized actions and took stuff away. Our presence was there in the second half."
The Blazers have won nine of their past 10 games and are in third place in the Western Conference.
Atlanta's three-game winning streak, which tied its longest of the season, was snapped.
"Shots weren't falling," Young said. "We hit nine 3s tonight. We usually hit a little bit more. I didn't shoot the ball well. I started off early, but my shots weren't going in after that first quarter."
Young hit a 3 in the first quarter that gave him 150 and made him the 12th NBA rookie ever to reach the mark.
Aminu has double-doubles in consecutive games for the first time this season. He had 12 points and 11 boards against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday.
John Collins finished with 20 points for the Hawks, who had no solution for Lillard.
"Dame kind of got off to a nice start," Collins said, "and it kind of ignited them all night."
Hawks forward Taurean Prince missed the game with a foot injury.
Young passed Dominique Wilkins for third place on the Atlanta rookie scoring list in the second quarter and moved past John Drew for second place late in the fourth with his 1,444th point. Wilkins, the Hawks' vice president for basketball and a longtime TV broadcaster, was a rookie in the 1982-83 season. Drew debuted in 1974-75.
Pete Maravich set the Hawks' record with 1,880 points in 1970-71.