The Portland Trail Blazers were doing a great job of not letting games fall against losing teams.

In fact, they entered Thursday night at 5-1 against teams that currently have losing records.

But none of those teams feature a player the caliber of Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, who put the Nets on his back with 35 points and eight rebounds to lead the Nets to a 109-107 win at the Moda Center.

Interestingly, it was his late miss that set up the winning basket.

The drama began when Justise Winslow drew an offensive foul on Durant during an in-bounds play with five seconds on the shot clock and 31.8 seconds on the game clock and the Nets up 106-103.

That led to Jerami Grant missing on a drive to the rim but Jusuf Nurkic grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled while attempting to score. He made the first free throw but missed the second. The Blazers then fouled Durant with 14.9 seconds remaining while trailing 106-104.

Durant missed the first free throw but made the second giving the Nets a 107-104 lead. The Blazers didn’t call a timeout, Damian Lillard brought the ball up but passed up taking a three to go inside to Nurkic. He scored and was fouled leading to a three-point play that tied the game at 107-107 with 6.5 seconds on the clock.

The Nets called a timeout. They play drawn up went to Durant. His fadeaway near the top of the key missed. But there for the put-back was Royce O’Neale. He tipped the ball off the glass and in to give the Nets a 109-107 lead with .7 seconds remaining.

The Blazers attempted a pass near the rim to Grant but the ball was tipped and went out of bounds with .1 seconds remaining.

Lillard led the Blazers with 25 points and 11 assists. Anfernee Simons added 24 points. Rookie Shaedon Sharpe scored a career-high 20 points off the bench.

WHAT IT MEANS

The Blazers (10-5) let this one slip away by simply shooting poorly. They hit on just 38.7% of their shots and 36.1% of their threes. The Nets (7-9) got 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists off the bench from the struggling Ben Simmons. It was that kind of night for Portland.

SHAEDON SHARPE

The Rookie came off the bench in the first quarter and by the time he left the game with about four minutes remaining in the half, he had 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting and made all three of his three-point attempts. His first two baskets – a dunk and a mid-range jumper – came within a minute and gave the Blazers a 24-21 lead in the first quarter.

He finished with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting and made 4 of 5 threes.