The Portland Trail Blazers claimed another key victory on Sunday as they came back to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 124-121. Damian Lillard dropped 51 points, including 18 in the last quarter for Rip City. This was the fifth time for Lillard to reach 50-plus points this season, matching James Harden, and the 10th time in his career, matching Abdul Kareem-Jabbar.

Lillard was not the only one who reached career milestones on Sunday. Thirty-six-year-old Carmelo Anthony went 6-13 to get 20 points, seven rebounds and two steals. His all-time career score reached 26,411, surpassing John Havlicek and Paul Pierce to rank No. 15 on the NBA's All-Time Scoring List. Anthony was 902 points from No. 10 Elvin Hayes. If he can play like this for another season, it should not be hard for him to make top 10.

"It's an honor and I'm blessed to still be able to do it, to reach that top 15. I don't want to take that for granted. There's some greats on there. But it's kind of hard to celebrate that at this moment. I appreciate it. It is what it is. It's a great milestone. I get it. I don't want to downplay it. It's very hard to harp on it, to talk about it when we're still in this dog fight and there's so much that have to accomplish," said Anthony.

Compared with Portland's happiness and excitement, the 76ers were simply upset, not just about the loss, but also with the fact that their franchise center Joel Embiid returned to the locker room in the first quarter because of injury and did not come back to the court. Though he seemed to be able to stand up by himself on the bench, every possible bad news can be nerve-wracking to Philadelphia, especially after Ben Simmons left the bubble for surgery and might not be ruled out for the remainder of this season.

It has been no secret that Embiid and Simmons were hurting each other in offense when they were both on the court. However, Simmons' orchestrating, especially his ability to launch fast break and his contribution to defense were not something that the 76ers could afford to throw away. Under such circumstance, if Embiid is held back by injuries too, it will be mission impossible for the 76ers to make any difference in the playoffs.

The other consequence of the result of this game was that both the New Orleans Pelicans and the Sacramento Kings are out of the playoff qualification race.

Disappointing Pelicans during NBA restart

The Pelicans lost to the San Antonio Spurs 122-113. Though Zion Williamson came back to play in this game and scored 25 points seven rebounds in 27 minutes, he could not save his team from the fourth loss in the six games since the season restart.

Thirty-six-year-old veteran shooter J.J. Reddick scored court-high 31 points by going 8-12 from downtown, but there's nothing he could do more than missing the playoffs for the first time in his career.

The other young genius of New Orleans, Brandon Ingram was 6-14 to get 17 points, six rebounds and five assists. Lonzo Ball though delivered 10 assists; his 2-10 shooting performance only brought him five points.

Before the restart, the Pelicans were one of the most hopeful teams for playoff qualification in the Western Conference. Ingram's explosive performance led to his All-Star debut; Williamson returned from injury as a big surprise; their schedule in Orlando was one of the sweetest. Many were looking forward to watching Williamson take on LeBron James in the first round of the playoffs.

Now everything is gone. There's no point in arguing why Williamson claimed he's 100-percent healthy but played under time restrictions. Ball's improved shooting performance seemed like a flash in the pan. Many of Alvin Gentry's instructions on the floor were worse than mediocre. How will they keep Ingram who will become a free agent soon?

The Pelicans need a start-over and it may not be pretty.

Other games on Sunday:

Washington Wizards 103-121 Oklahoma City Thunder

Memphis Grizzlies 99-108 Toronto Raptors

Orlando Magic 119-122 Boston Celtics

Brooklyn Nets 129-120 Los Angeles Clippers

Houston Rockets 129-112 Sacramento Kings