LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Damian Lillard launched from 33 feet to the outside and could only see and wait when the ball came from the back edge and shot straight into the air – the fate of the game, and his Portland Trail Blazers’ terrible playoff push , hanging in balance.
The hottest player in the NBA bubble obviously got the shooter’s shot. The late 3 gave Lillard 61 points, tied his career high, and propelled his Blazers to a 134-131 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
When Lillard enjoyed the victory that wrestled the only possession of eighth place in the Western Conference grandstand away from the Memphis Grizzlies, with one boiling game to go, court cameras captured the All-Star to make a question.
“Let there be some respect for my name,” he said, over and over again as teammates and coaches came to congratulate their hero.
The run of the eight-year veteran is not only respectful of the Portland shooter, it is “Dame” to be included in the first-name-only club with NBA greats like Michael, Shaq, Kobe, LeBron and, most appropriate, Wilt.
Tuesday’s score was Lillard’s third 60-plus-points game of the season; he joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only player in league history with three or more games with 60 points in the same season (Chamberlain had 15 in 1961-62 and nine in 1962-63).
“That’s the most important game of our lives,” Lillard told TNT in an on-court interview after the game. “Tonight was great. We said we needed one win. We’ll focus on one game. We’ve done this one. And that’s the most important thing. We have to finish it well.”
The Blazers are now 5-2 since the restart, with Lillard rebounding from Saturday’s loss to the LA Clippers, in which he missed two late free throws, with 51 points in a win against the Philadelphia 76ers followed by his 61-point effort against Luka Doncic and the Mavs. It is the first time in his career that he has gone for back-to-back 50-point games, making him the second-shortest player in league history, at 6-2, with consecutive 50-point nights. Only Allen Iverson (6-0) was shorter. Tuesday’s performance also lifted Lillard’s career total to 11 50-point games in the regular season, tying him with Iverson for eighth on the all-time list.
“First of all, I’m just happy to be in that kind of business. It’s an honor,” Lillard said when informed of Chamberlain State. “Last night, there could not have been better timing for that type of game.”
Lillard’s effort was extra time in mind as his backcourt mate, CJ McCollum, played with an unplaced fracture in his lower back, first reported by NBC Sports Northwest and confirmed by ESPN.
McCollum had a plus-minus of -25 in 39 minutes, scoring eight points on 3-for-14 shots with 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 fouls. However, he hit two free throws with 3.9 seconds in regulation to increase Portland’s lead from one to three, putting up a wild last – second miss by the Mavs’ Tim Hardaway Jr. when he tried to send the game to overtime.
“He’s a little scared,” Lillard of McCollum said. “He makes no excuses or seeks no way out. He throws it out for the team and is there for us.”
Lillard was also part of a major defensive stop, taking a charge on the Mavericks’ Trey Burke with 4.5 seconds left. Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said Lillard may have slipped one past the referees.
“I did not see it; the people who had the iPads [on the Dallas coaching staff] said it was clearly a flop, “Carlisle said.” But great players at the moment, they know how to handle this situation. That, hey, if it’s a flop, maybe he’s fine. I do not know, but it does not help us in the context of the game. There were so many good elements of that play that it was sad for us. “
Portland will play the Brooklyn Nets in the Blazers’ Seeding Round final on Thursday with a simple guideline: Win and they are guaranteed a spot in the play-in round this weekend, with a first-round tie against the Lakers on the point.
“Nobody wanted to get in this bubble and make the playoffs more than Dame,” Blazers coach Terry Stott said. “And we have one more game to go, but his leadership – apparently his game speaks for itself – but he brings the team along with him.”
As for the back-rim beauty of Lillard, who tied the game at 130 with a 1:29 left, responding immediately to a 3 by Kristaps Porzingis on Dallas’ previous possession, Stotts recalled the foul line-jumper of Don Nelson in Game 7 of the Finals of 1969 that also took a happy bounce and helped the Boston Celtics defeat the Lakers.
“Nellie’s shot was not even close to Dame’s shot,” Stotts grabbed.
Lillard is convinced that his shot was saved by a little divine intervention.
“I think this was my cousin, rest in peace, Chef B, I think this hurts him for me,” he said.
Brandon “Chef B” Johnson, who over the years has been preparing food for Lillard, McCollum and other Blazers players, died suddenly in May.
“He was just the person who was a lot of things to me and wore a lot of hats to me,” Lillard said. “He was my right man. Everything I needed, he did for me, in principle, and getting rid of him, it hurt. … I just try to go through what I feel like he would want me to do, and I’m just doing it that way.
“Just try to keep going on the path I know he was proud of.”
ESPN’s Tim MacMahon contributed to this report.
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