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Dame Time took over Sunday night in prime time.
After wowing Rip City for nine seasons with ringing playoff batsmen, notable individual scoring points and too many clutch performances to count, Damian Lillard has found another step – one of the greatest in the NBA – to detect another layer of his star power.
Lillard scored 32 points, including the deciding three-point game, to catapult Team LeBron to a convincing 170-150 victory over Team Durant in the NBA All-Star Game at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. It was the most points a Portland Trail Blazers player scored in the show’s annual showcase, and Lillard delivered them in stunning fashion, mixing alley dunks with three-point bombs in the half. -ground while scoring the last 11 points of his team.
Playing during a pandemic in a packed and condensed one-day event that also included the 3-Point Contest, Slam Dunk Contest, and Skill Challenge, Lillard somehow managed to grab an oversized share. spotlights.
“It’s kinda crazy,” Lillard said. “I couldn’t even imagine some of the things that happened in my career.”
Lillard, who narrowly missed a starting berth in the game due to a tiebreaker, came off the bench to play 21 minutes on Sunday, making 11 of 20 shots, including 8 of 16 with three points. But that’s how the points came that turned heads.
During a pre-game sideline meeting, Lillard said he and his teammates Stephen Curry and Chris Paul made a pact: they would all try to finish an aisle dunk and sink a shot in. half-court before the end of the night. Lillard held his end of the bargain in the first half, shooting a lob from Paul with 1:19 left in the second quarter and tackling a deep bomb about a minute later.
It was just a tease.
Lillard then scored three three-pointers near the half-court including the match winner, raising questions as to whether Logo Lillard will soon be changed to Halfcourt Lillard. He had threatened before the season to add half court three to his arsenal, but had yet to try it in a game. An exhibition contest against the best players in the game, it turns out, was just the place to dust it off.
“I wanted to test it in live action,” Lillard said. “It was decent, it was fine, like a normal jumper. I was able to film it quite easily.
Lillard, a famous long-range sniper who has extended his reach to the logo in recent years, said he was sheepish to attempt a half-court three in a game “out of respect” for his teammates. Why compromise a defensive position with a low percentage shot at random?
But it’s something Lillard practices regularly and he trusts his accuracy even at such distances. So now he has found success in an exhibition game, don’t be surprised to see him in a real one.
“I think I’ll do it,” he said. “If I do, I definitely will.”
At the very least, it got the approval of a former reviewer. Paul George, who Lillard hit with a 37-foot buzzer-beater to win a first-round playoff series in 2018, said he now regrets calling it a “bad shot” afterwards.
In an interview with Zoom after the game on Sunday, George told reporters that Lillard (and Curry) had developed ‘insane’ reach and performed deep threes with such ease and precision, those shots are now “well within their reach. “.
“It’s a great photo,” said George with a laugh. “Thumbs up.”
But while Lillard’s deep bombs made a lot of noise on Sunday, it was his late-game flurry of goals that got Team LeBron to win. For the second season in a row, the rules of the All-Star Game dictated that the game does not end until a team reaches 170 points. Lillard pushed Team LeBron to the threshold by scoring their last 11 points, completing a driving layup before hitting three straight three runs to end the game.
The last one came – where else? – half court, as Lillard dribbled the left side, crossed the half court line one step and threw the clincher. As the play unfolded, Curry lingered on the other end and prematurely bid farewell to the 2,500 fans in attendance, effectively calling Lillard’s kick.
After the dagger fell through the net, Lillard raised her arms and patted her wrist, bringing Dame Time to prime time.
Maybe the only thing Lillard missed on Sunday was the All-Star Game MVP trophy. It went to Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished a perfect 16 for 16 on the pitch and scored a high of 35 points.
Curry added 28 points, thanks to eight three-pointers, and he too stuck to the playmaker’s pact to complete a fairway-oop and hit a half-field three. Paul, who dazzled with 16 assists, managed his dunk but never had a chance to attempt a shot from half the field. That’s about the one thing that went wrong for Team LeBron.
“It was fun,” Lillard said. “It’s exciting to run there with a guy like (Curry). That’s what makes All-Star Weekend, All-Star Weekend. “
– Joe Freeman | [email protected] | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to The Oregonian / OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and the best articles
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