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NEW YORK -- LaMarcus Aldridge was stunned, suddenly finding himself matched against a version of Kevin Garnett that hadnt been seen yet in Brooklyn. "I think he had one of those flashbacks to when he was in Minnesota and I was coming in as a rookie," Aldridge said. Just as quickly, the old Garnett reverted to just old, and the young Portland Trail Blazers ran right by the Brooklyn Nets. Aldridge scored 27 points, Wesley Matthews added 24 and Portland shot 54 per cent in a 108-98 victory Monday night that extended its winning streak to seven. "This team is good. Guys can get going," Aldridge said. Damian Lillard finished with 19 points and nine assists as the Trail Blazers withstood the Nets blistering start to win seven in a row in the same season for the first time since a 13-game run in December 2007. Portland (9-2) is just a half-game behind San Antonio and Indiana for the NBAs best record. The Blazers will try to complete a perfect 4-0 road trip Wednesday at Milwaukee. Meanwhile, the Nets (3-7) remain one of the NBAs biggest disappointments, shooting 9 of 41 (22 per cent) in the second half. Garnett made all six shots in Brooklyns 40-point first period, then went 2 for 13 from there to finish with a season-high 16 points. "I take the blame for this," Nets coach Jason Kidd said. "We got stagnant on the offensive end, so that falls on my shoulders. We came out flat in the third quarter." Shaun Livingston scored 23 points for the Nets, who stormed out to their best first quarter of the season and then seemed to run out of gas. "Theyre a talented team. Theyve got Hall of Famers on that team and we had to throw our first punch, because we felt like they did that to us in that first quarter," Matthews said. "We came at them defensively and ramped it up." Garnett and Paul Pierce were back in the starting lineup after missing Saturdays loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles with injuries, though Brook Lopez and Deron Williams continued to rest sprained left ankles. Pierce, who had a sore left groin, played as if he was still hurting, managing just 11 points on 2-for-12 shooting. Neither he nor Garnett spoke to reporters. "Its been a tough month for us," said Jason Terry, who came with them from Boston. "Were going to stay optimistic, man. We have a great situation here and were just going to keep building." Portland turned the game around in the third quarter, limiting the Nets to 3-of-18 shooting and outscoring them 27-12 to take an 83-78 lead. They then opened the fourth with a 12-4 spurt to open a 95-82 advantage when Mo Williams was credited with a basket on a goaltending call. Matthews was 5 of 8 from 3-point range, improving to 30 for 57 for the season (52.6 per cent). He kept the Blazers in the game in the first quarter, when the Nets made 14 of 19 shots for a 40-31 lead. "What won the game for us was turning it on the last three quarters defensively," Matthews said. "Were not going to outscore teams on a consistent basis and win. We have to practice what we preach, which is defence, and thats what we were able to do tonight." Garnett, who hadnt been in double figures yet in the Brooklyn black and white, got there in this one by hitting five jumpers in less than 3 minutes at the start. He took a seat after starting 6 for 6 and then Livingston took over. He made all three of his shots in the period, including a driving, left-handed slam dunk over Robin Lopez that had teammates leaping up off the nearby Nets bench. But they fell apart in the third, just as they have in all their losses. Brooklyn has won the third quarter in all three victories and been outscored in the period in every loss. "We were hot. We had momentum. But you can go cold at any time in the game, so thats where we have to make adjustments," Livingston said. "Were all veterans out there on the floor." NOTES: Aldridge grabbed eight rebounds, ending his streak of five straight double-doubles. ... The Nets were also without reserve forward Andrei Kirilenko, who continues to be bothered by back spasms. ... Brooklyns previous high was 33 points in the first quarter at Washington. The Nets also lost that game after a bad third quarter. Jordan From China . Three days after falling to Hamilton, Abbotsford scored three goals in 53 seconds en route to a convincing 5-1 win over the Bulldogs Saturday in American Hockey League play. China Shoes Cheap . -- Ryan Millers debut for the St. https://www.chinashoes.us/ . -- The Chicago Bears say they have agreed to a one-year contract with centre Roberto Garza. China Shoes To USA . - Dominika Cibulkova erased three match points in the second set Wednesday and beat Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Sony Open. China Shoes Store . With Washington teammate Nene drawing double-teams coming off his big game against the Lakers, Gortat scored 25 points on 11-of-12 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Wizards to a 100-92 win in overtime over Milwaukee on Wednesday night.MONTREAL -- It looked like it would be easy when Rene Bourque scored for the Montreal Canadiens only 11 seconds into the game. But the Canadiens needed a third-period goal from Tomas Plekanec and some fine saves from Carey Price to down the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 on Sunday night and take a choke hold on their NHL Eastern Conference playoff series. The victory gave Montreal a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven set with a chance to sweep the Bolts on home ice in Game 4 on Tuesday night. "Weve seen many scenarios in the playoffs and we have to have the same approach for the next game as we had for the last three," said Montreal defenceman P.K. Subban, who had a pair of assists in a standout performance. "Theyre a good team. "They had a lot of opportunities to score. They fought their way back into the game. They put pucks on the net and came hard to the end. We know theyll fight until the final buzzer, so we have to be ready next game." Brendan Gallagher also scored for Montreal while Ondrej Palat, back after missing a game with an injury, and defenceman Matthew Carle replied for Tampa Bay. Montreal outshot the Lightning 31-29, but there were nervy moments and a disputed, disallowed goal as the visitors pushed back in the second and third frames. "We were determined, we played with passion, I thought we responded unreal," said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper. "Its tough to walk into that locker-room and look those guys in the eye. "Clearly, that was the best game weve played in this series. I though they deserved a better fate. Ultimately, its a loss and thats what hurts the most." The Canadiens have a chance to avenge their only previous playoff meeting with the Lightning, who swept them in 2004 before going on to win the Stanley Cup. After winning the first two games in Tampa, Fla., the Canadiens returned to a rousing welcome from their fans and a spectacular pre-game show. The crowd of 21,273 was still roaring after joining old-time Quebec pop singer Ginette Reno in the Canadian anthem when Subban bounced a pass up the middle of the ice and Bourque collected it behind the Lightning defence. The unexpected scoring hero put his third of the series past Anders Lindback at the 11-second mark -- and the noise got even louder. "I didnt really know who (Reno) was, but by the reaction I knew it was somebody popular," said Bourque. "She did a great job getting the fans fired up. "We didnt plan it at all. It was a lucky bounce." Lindback made up for it with some strong saves as the Lightning cancelled the Canadiens early emotion by killing off a four-minute high-sticking call on rearguard Mike Barberio. Palat tied it 8:39 into the second frame as he buried the ricochet of a Steven Stamkos shot off Mike Weavers skate on the Bolts first powerr play.dddddddddddd Then the Lightning poured it on, and looked like they had the go-ahead goal, only to see Subban bat a flying puck out of the air behind Price. Seconds later, Ryan Callahan put the puck in at 15:38 only to see it waived off due to what was ruled as incidental contact on Price by Alex Killorn. The Bolts felt the goal was good. "I was (angry) then and Im (angry) now," said Cooper. "Thats just my opinion. Ill let the court of public opinion take care of the rest." Of course, the Canadiens thought the officials got the call right. "It was a pass across, it got deflected in the air," said Price. "Subban batted it out of the air and it wound up kind of a scramble. "I tried to come back across the net and tripped over their guy, who was right in the middle of the crease. At that point, I didnt know what was going on." Less than three minutes later, the teams were each down a man when Subban picked up the puck, skated through the defence and around the net to set up Gallagher for his second goal of the series at 18:10. "I just tried to create space," said Subban, who had a team-high 28:03 of ice time. "I took a penalty earlier in the period and I felt good when I came back on the ice and the guys had killed it off. "Larry (Lars Eller) made a great play behind the net to move it to open ice. I tried to draw the forechecker to me and see what happened. I went behind the net. Gally did a great job to get himself open. It makes it easy for me to get it to him." Plekanec scored what would be the game-winner when he threaded a shot through from the right circle 5:43 into the third period. But Carle made it close with a point shot that looked to deflect off a body in front at 11:36. The Canadiens held off a late charge to put the win away. The lightning got a scare at 16:09 of the second when Stamkos fell after jostling with Brandon Prust and got hit in the head by Alexei Emelins knee. But the Bolts scoring star was able to return for the third period and picked up his second assist of the night on Carles goal. Cooper made four lineup changes, bringing in forwards Palat, Tom Pyatt and B.J. Crombeen and defenceman Barberio and scratching Sami Salo, Michael Kostka, Richard Panik and Nikita Kucherov. Salo reportedly has an upper body injury. Montreal made no changes. Notes: The Canadiens called up a taxi squad from AHL Hamilton, including goalies Dustin Tokarski and Devan Dubnyk, defencemen Nathan Beaulieu, Davis Drewiske and Greg Pateryn and forwards Sven Andrighetto, Mike Blundin, Gabriel Dumont, Louis Leblanc and Christian Thomas. . . Bourques goal was not a team record for fastest to start a game. Bo Gainey scored seven seconds into a playoff game in 1977. ' ' '