Damian Lillard Recaptures the Feeling
Lillard's fourth career 60-point game came at a perfect time as the Trail Blazers begun to string wins together.
PORTLAND, Ore. — It wasn't until towards the end of the third quarter that Wednesday started to feel like one of those Damian Lillard nights.
Lillard had 17 points in the second quarter to finish the first half with 26, including six of his nine three-pointers, but he's had plenty of halves like that, and the Trail Blazers were still in a tight one with the Jazz, one of the (many) teams in their same range in the Western Conference standings.
The free throw Lillard made with just over five minutes left in the third quarter kicked off a run of 20 straight points, this time mostly inside the arc with some acrobatic finishes at the rim. When he pulled up a couple of times from deep, it mostly felt like it was for effect. He didn't need those "Logo Lillard" shots, or even his typically elite grifting abilities (only 10 free-throw attempts on the night) to get to 50 through the first three quarters. This one felt less like a takeover and more surgical, until you looked up and saw the box score and realized what it was historically.
"Usually, I get into a groove where I'm just going without making those simple plays, and teams start to come after me sooner," Lillard said after the game. "This time, I was kicking it ahead, I was swinging it. It didn't feel like they came after me until the very end."
This 60-point game felt quiet because it was, in fact, the most efficient in NBA history, a fact Lillard himself couldn't believe when he was told it after the game.
"I'm just sitting here thinking, 'I had a shot towards the end of the shot clock, and if I hadn't shot that, it probably would have been a little bit better,'" he said. "And I missed a free throw? Damn."
Even without the fireworks typically associated with one of these scoring performances, a big, round number like the 60 Lillard ended up with, especially coming in the Blazers' second straight win, did a lot to recapture the feeling of the early part of the season, before the injuries and turnover issues caught up to them and they began the free-fall they've been in for the past month.
What Lillard did on Wednesday, chipping and chipping until he ended up with 60 points in a much-needed win, is emblematic of what he's preached on a team level during this skid. Sunday's blown 25-point lead in a loss to the Lakers was rock bottom; stringing two wins together, even if one was against a tanking Spurs team, does a lot to at least stop the bleeding and at least keep them in the mix. As of this second, they're still on the outside of the play-in; they're also two games out of fifth place in the west and two and a half games out of having home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Because Lillard is capable of having nights like this, the Blazers can cover up the many weaknesses on the rest of the roster. And because of his steadiness and measured approach off the court, the locker room has thus far been able to get through a nightmare stretch mostly unscathed. Head coach Chauncey Billups credited Lillard with setting that tone when I asked him pregame whether morale has been up-and-down during this extended rough patch.
"I think it's easy for it to go up and down, but it's been pretty steady," he said. "I'm telling you—I come in here and I speak to you guys, and I'm honest with y'all, we've suffered some really tough losses and I've felt like our guys have always stayed together through it. I'm proud of that. In the NBA, it's tough. You're going to suffer some of those types of losses. You're going to not play well. Things are going to happen. And in that moment, teams are going to start finger-pointing. I've been in a lot of locker rooms to know that. And I just haven't seen that with us. I love it. It speaks to the character of our team."
The Blazers have many flaws and many issues. The Blazers also have Damian Lillard, and that's reason enough to believe they'll be able to come out the other side of whatever is ailing them right now. Nights like Wednesday are enough to remind you of that.
"We've got a pretty young team," Lillard said. "We're not the most experienced team. We've got a lot of guys that want to do it. It's not like we're inexperienced on purpose, we just have guys that haven't had a lot of experience at it. So as the season goes along, we're getting experience. We're getting to go through some adversity. We've had injuries. We've had struggles. And I think when you hit a spot like we've hit, it's necessary for guys who do have experience and do know how to jump out front and pull the team along to do that when you're in a tough spot."
Are the Blazers out of the woods because they won two games in a row after three bad losses? Certainly not. And the injury issues that had largely resolved themselves in recent weeks (Justise Winslow is the only rotation player who hasn't been available to play in recent days) may be cropping back up, with Josh Hart and Jusuf Nurkic both exiting the game with left hamstring and right calf injuries, respectively. Hart's injury may inadvertently expedite the move of Nassir Little into the starting lineup that's felt inevitable for a week, and my feeling is that Hart is the most likely player not to still be here after the trade deadline in two weeks. There are a lot of questions about the roster and the direction of the season that will be answered between now and then.
One of those questions is not what they're going to get out of their franchise player. In the dog days of the season, when the shine and excitement of a new year and new teams has worn off, has typically been when he's done his best work.
"I just think I thrive in those situations," Lillard said. "I also know what works for me. What types of things I have to do when that comes, to give myself a chance to be successful, and I always do it. It's not guaranteed to work, but it's always given me the kind of results that I'm looking for."
The Blazers need those results now more than ever. And this is typically when Lillard provides them.