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Damian Lillard has been snubbed again.
The Portland Trail Blazers point guard, despite all the February MVP buzz and otherworldly early season play, was denied a starting spot in the 2021 NBA All-Star Game after a vote weighted fans, media and NBA players left him out of the game. Western Conference team.
Lillard was voted starting by the media and NBA players, receiving the second-highest number of votes among Western Conference guards on both ballots. But he finished third in the fan vote behind Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic. The result was a tie between the two dynamic playmakers and, in the end, Doncic won the tiebreaker – and a starting nod – because he received more fan votes.
Doncic will join Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic on the Western Conference squad.
Lillard has won five All-Star spots over the years, but never a starting spot. And he may never have deserved it more.
Lillard led the Blazers through an injury-riddled season with a dominant mix of late-game goal, play and shooting. He averages 29.8 points, 7.7 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game, and over a third of the season he ranks third in the NBA in points, 10th in assists and second. for the three points (112).
Throughout it all, he’s been remarkably tight, bolstering his status as perhaps the most feared late-game assassin in the NBA. In clutch situations – defined as those where a game’s score is less than five points in the final five minutes of regulation or overtime – Lillard leads the NBA in scoring (82 points), ranks third for assists (14) and shoots a sizzle 63.2%
And perhaps most importantly, his game took the Blazers to a surprising 18-10 record – the fourth best in the West – even though they played more than half of the season without starters CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic.
By comparison, Doncic’s play has been fascinating – he averages 29.1 points, 9.4 assists and 8.6 rebounds per game – but the disappointing mavericks (13-15) are 10th in the West.
The starting lineups were revealed on TNT ahead of its double header Thursday night and the Inside the NBA The crew unanimously agreed that Lillard had been snubbed.
“I still think Damian Lillard should be a starter,” Shaquille O’Neal said. “No one is feared in the game like the guy from Damian Lillard.”
Kenny Smith added: “Popularity contest, Luka will win. But, as Shaq said, the most feared man in basketball right now is Damian Lillard. He was my preseason MVP because I thought he could do it.
But, in the end, it came down to a popularity contest – literally – and fans chose Doncic over Lillard.
Lillard was this on the cusp of becoming the seventh player in franchise history to earn a starting spot in the All-Star Game. Clyde Drexler (1992-94), Bill Walton (1978), Maurice Lucas (1978), Geoff Petrie (1974) and Sidney Wicks (1973) were voted All-Star starters as the Blazers, while LaMarcus Aldridge started the game in 2015 as an injury replacement for Anthony Davis.
The starters for this year’s game – scheduled for March 7 in Atlanta – were determined by the combined votes of fans, media and NBA players on a weighted scale. Fan ballots accounted for 50% of the vote, while player and media votes each accounted for 25%.
– Joe Freeman | [email protected] | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to Oregonian / OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and the best articles.
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