LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- After Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard rose up and hit a 3-pointer, while being fouled, with 2:53 remaining in the fourth quarter of Sunday night's game against the Philadelphia 76ers to put Portland ahead by two, he turned and looked at the scoreboard.

"I just remember looking up there, because I wanted to get to the point where we took the lead, and then just keep the lead, instead of playing from behind. Because that's uncomfortable, to be like, you're down two, if they score, they can go up 5 if they make a shot.

"So I just looked up there like, 'OK, now let's walk away from them. Let's close the game out. Let's stop messing around with our season.'

"That's really what I was thinking when I looked up there. Like, 'All right. Let's do this.'"

Lillard proceeded to do just that. After missing two free throws and a potential game-tying 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds of Saturday's loss to the LA Clippers, Lillard responded by scoring 51 points while adding 7 assists in 40 minutes to power the Blazers to a 124-121 victory over the Sixers inside the NBA's bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort.

With the victory, Portland moved within a half-game of the Memphis Grizzlies, who lost to the Toronto Raptors earlier Sunday, for eighth place in the Western Conference, and eliminated the New Orleans Pelicans and Sacramento Kings -- both of whom lost Sunday -- from contention for a spot in the league's first-ever play-in tournament.

It looked for a significant stretch of the fourth quarter that Portland might suffer a disappointing loss for a second day in a row to an undermanned opponent. After losing to the Clippers with Kawhi Leonard being rested for the whole game and Paul George on the bench in the dying moments, the Sixers -- who were already without star Ben Simmons because of a left knee injury -- lost Joel Embiid six minutes into the game with a left ankle injury.

And yet, the Blazers saw their offense grow stagnant thanks to tired legs in the second half, while the Sixers -- led by 28 points from Josh Richardson -- made a push and actually took a 114-108 lead with 4:23 remaining on a Richardson 3-pointer.

But Portland responded with 12 unanswered points over the next two minutes -- capped off by seven straight points by Lillard, first on the and-one 3-pointer and then a pull-up triple on the next possession -- that gave the Blazers the lead for good, and allowed him to bounce back from Saturday's disappointment.

"I don't think anyone thinks anything less of Dame because he missed free throws," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "Tonight, he showed his determination and will that he's shown throughout his career.

"I don't think anybody was concerned about how he was going to come out and play tonight."

The same could be said for center Jusuf Nurkic, who gave the Blazers 15 points and six rebounds in 29 minutes while playing in the first back-to-back games he's participated in since coming back from a gruesome leg injury he suffered last season.

"I was not prepared for the back-to-back," said Nurkic, who said he decided to play when Hassan Whiteside was ruled out for a second straight game with a hip injury. "After that loss, I couldn't afford not to play. So I tried to fight through, and I'm glad we won this one.

"We know our season is on the line right now, and we can afford no more losses."

The Blazers now have two games remaining: Tuesday against the Dallas Mavericks and Thursday against the Brooklyn Nets. If Portland wins both, it is guaranteed a place in the play-in tournament, which starts Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on ABC.

And, thanks to Lillard's heroics, he was both able to erase Saturday's disappointment, and move Portland one win closer to achieving the goal of making something out of this opportunity by making the playoffs that he set for the Blazers before they arrived here.

"After the game, I was irritated with myself," Lillard said. "I was frustrated. But it is what it is. I talked with one of my best friends, and he was like, 'This happened for a reason. You've had a lot of big moments, and you usually come out on top. ... You've got to expect there to be some type of balance. You've got to expect that sometimes you're going to have to respond to some type of adversity.'

"I had a chance to get back on the court today, so I moved from it."

A small part of the victory was Carmelo Anthony, one of the best scorers in NBA history, moving past both John Havlicek and Paul Pierce and into 15th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. But Anthony said it wasn't something he was going to celebrate right now, as Portland fights for a playoff spot and he and the NBA's players are making their push to end racial inequality and promote social justice.

"Well, first of all, it's an honor, and I'm blessed to still be able to do it," Anthony said afterward. "To reach that top 15, I wouldn't take it for granted. Some greats on there.

"[But] it's kind of hard to celebrate that at this moment. I appreciate it ... it's a great milestone. I don't want to downplay it. [But] it's very hard to harp on it and talk about it when you're still in this dogfight, because there is so much we have to accomplish."