Damian Lillard Owns the Bubble Right Now
Over the last couple weeks, no player has done a better job illustrating why millions of people love and missed NBA basketball than Damian Lillard. His victories are glory. His struggles are theatre. His game is an executioner’s axe, and his confidence is infectious.
Already this season’s best point guard* before games went on hold in March, Lillard has been the bubble’s central figure. A month ago, the Portland Trail Blazers had a 10 percent chance to make the playoffs. Now, heading into Saturday’s play-in game, with Dame averaging a bubble-high 37.6 points, 9.6 assists, and 12.6 threes per game, Portland’s odds to crack the postseason are up to 93 percent.
This is a historic heater, yet the latest chapter of Lillard’s legend started in humiliation after he missed two late free throws against the Los Angeles Clippers—a humbling experience for the career 89 percent free-throw shooter. Dame scolded his hecklers on social media and the very next day responded with a 51-point outburst against the Philadelphia 76ers. Facing another win-or-get-eclipsed-by-the-Phoenix-Suns contest two nights later, Dame repeatedly put poor Kristaps Porzingis on skates to the tune of 61 points against the Dallas Mavericks.
Last night against a Brooklyn Nets team that shot 55 percent, in his third-straight must-win game, Dame was a pacesetter, navigating the thickets of a defensive scheme solely designed to take the ball out of his hands. He was regularly double-teamed at half court, but Lillard’s self-belief broke that strategy on several occasions. In the second quarter, he splashed in a three from the “E” in “Black Lives Matter.” Then, early in the fourth, he nonchalantly pulled up from the NBA logo to drill a shot that for everybody else would be categorized as “a prayer.”
When asked about it after the game, Lillard said “it got the point where I said I’m not gon’ sleep well tonight knowing that I was just passive and made the right play, so each time I saw a look—I don’t care how far it was or if somebody was close to me—if I had a sniff I was raising up and shooting it, and that’s why I shot that one.”
Dame’s coldblooded approach is not surprising, per se. This dude has literally ended two playoff series with his range. But it’ll never not be extraordinary. Lillard finished with eight 3s and 42 points against the Nets, stacking more numbers onto an already-magnificent crunch time resume. In the bubble, Dame Time has been a bonafide prophecy. In the clutch, he leads all bubble players in points, shots, threes, assists, and free-throw attempts. Portland’s offense in those 37 minutes has sizzled almost exclusively because of Lillard’s poise, and they’ve outscored their opponents by 19 points when he’s on the court.
It’s inherently difficult for any 6’2” point guard to have the same impact as more powerful players like LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, or Giannis Antetokounmpo. (For starters, defense matters, and Portland’s might be the league’s worst right now.) But at this point in time, Lillard is equally unguardable. His standard pick-and-roll brilliance has turned into an even more lethal pick-your-poison dilemma. Bigs who step up to contest his pull-up three immediately find themselves feeling vulnerable to stop the quickest first step in basketball. Bigs who give him a cushion get to watch his 28-footers sail over their head and into the basket. He’s making 41.6 percent of nearly 10 pull-up threes per game right now. It’s an 8-game sample size, but Dame’s volume and accuracy on these shots has made Steph Curry look like he’s been pulling punches.
Assuming Memphis doesn’t somehow manage to beat Portland twice this weekend (as the no. 9 seed, the Grizzlies need to win on Saturday and Sunday if they want to make the playoffs), the Blazers will rumble into Round 1 against a shaky Los Angeles Lakers team that has no real options to slow Dame down. To bet against LeBron is always a fool’s errand. But in 2020, the year Damian Lillard turned into a fireball, betting against him might be an even less intelligent proposition.
He is the NBA’s most heroic protagonist, a genuine people’s champion, and the number one reason I’m euphoric about professional basketball being back in my life. You won’t want to miss the show he puts on Saturday afternoon.
Originally Appeared on GQ
