Nothing has been easy in the 2019-20 NBA
season for the Portland Trail Blazers. They have dealt with everything from
inconsistent play, injuries and like the rest of the NBA, and the world for
that matter, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic. If there were any chance that
the NBA could resume admits the global pandemic, all the Western Conference
runners-up from “Rip City” wanted was a chance to make the playoffs. They got
that chance and led by their perennial All-Star floor general, a future Hall of
Fame forward and a gritty effort, they climbed out a major hole and are headed
back to the postseason.
In the NBA’s first Play-In game in 64
years, the Portland Trail Blazers (36-39) defeated the Memphis Grizzlies
(34-40) for the second time in the league’s restart 126-122 on Saturday
afternoon on ABC at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex to clinch the No. 8
and final playoff spot in the Western Conference and a First-Round date with
four-time league MVP LeBron James, Kia Defensive Player of the Year candidate
Anthony Davis and No. 1 Seed in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers
(52-19).
In the biggest game of their season
five-time All-Star lead guard Damian Lillard and his sidekick CJ McCollum, who
has been playing with almost all of this restart with a small fracture in his
lower back were at their absolute best. Lillard led the way again with a team
high 31 points and 10 assists. While he did not shoot the ball well, unlike the
entire restart, and especially the last three games going just 6 for 15 from
the field, including 5 for 14 from three-point range, he was a perfect 14 for
14 from the charity stripe.
Lillard has saved his best for last in the
fourth quarter of the last three games averaging 17.3 points for three straight
games in the final period, which has become known as “Dame Time,” it was
McCollum who had the hot hand in the fourth scoring 14 of his 29 points,
hitting one crucial jump shot after another.
“I was thinking I don’t want to play again
tomorrow,” McCollum said to ESPN’s Lisa Salters after the game about clinching
a playoff berth on their first try and not in a winner take all late Sunday
afternoon. “We had to get this done tonight. Make sure we came out and finished
them off. We thankful that we were put in position to be able to make the
playoffs, and we didn’t want to squander an opportunity.”
This season, especially this restart for
the Trail Blazers was all about seizing opportunity because things did not go
well in the early going for them, starting out at 5-9.
They lost starting big man Zach Collins to
a shoulder injury three games into this season. Swingman Rodney Hood was lost
to a torn Achilles. Starting center Jusuf Nurkic was on the shelf recovering
from a gruesome leg injury back in late March 2019.
In need of a spark, the Trail Blazers
signed future Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony to help get them back on track.
After a rough beginning, Anthony really settled in and showed the league and
all the naysayers amongst NBA fans and the media that there was plenty of gas
left in the 10-time All-Stars tank.
Even with Anthony, the Trail Blazers were
still playing catchup with the Grizzlies, who when the league was put on pause
because of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mar. 11, they were 3.5 games behind the
Grizzlies for the No. 8 and final playoff spot in the West.
Throughout the hiatus, head coach Terry
Stotts’ squad, led by Lillard they said that if the NBA was going to return,
they wanted to have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs.
They got that shot in Orlando, and they
took full advantage of it going 6-2 in the restart at the ESPN Wide World of
Sports Complex and going from 3.5 games out of the playoffs to winning their
last three games, including the aforementioned win in the play-in game versus
the Grizzlies.
Lillard was a big reason why the Trail
Blazers earned the No. 8 Seed and a matchup against the top seed in the West in
the aforementioned Lakers, thanks to averages of 37.6 points (Led NBA) and 9.6
assists on 49.7 percent from the field, 48.4 three-point percentage 93.8 free
throw percentage, going 75 for 80 from the charity stripe.
The former Weber State product from
Oakland, CA was especially magnificent the last three games of the restart with
averages of 51.3 points and nine assists on 56.1 percent from the field, 48.8
percent from the three-point line and 95.5 percent from the foul line on 41 for
43.
Lillard totaled 154 points in those last
three games, the most by any player in their final three games of a season. He
also became the first player in NBA history, according to the Elias Sports
Bureau to end the regular season with three consecutive games scoring 40-plus
points, while also becoming the only player in NBA history to average 50 points
and nine assists over a three-game span, also according to the Elias Sports
Bureau.
This magnificent run for Lillard began
with his 51-point performance, where he registered 18 of those 51 in the fourth
quarter of their 124-121 win versus the Philadelphia 76ers (43-30) on NBATV on
Aug 9. He was 16 for 28 from the field, including 4 for 12 from three-point
range and 15 for 16 from the free throw line with seven assists and two steals.
Two nights later, Lillard registered a
career-high tying 61 points, scoring 22 in the fourth quarter in the Trail
Blazers’ 134-131 win at the Dallas Mavericks (43-32) on TNT, going 17 for 32
from the field, including 9 for 17 from three-point range and 18 for 18 from
the free throw line, with eight assists and five boards.
During his postgame interview with TNT’s
Chris Haynes, Lillard emphatically spoke made about the nature of his and the
team’s business being in Orlando.
“It ain’t nothing I want more. It ain’t
nothing I want more,” he said to Haynes. “When I first came here, I said I
didn’t come here to waist my time. They gave us a chance to get in (the
playoffs) like we asked for, and that’s what we here to do. Job still ain’t
done but I said, you know, what I’m here for. We trying to get in. Our work
ain’t done, but we’re fighting for sure.”
That fight on that night is how Lillard
reached another milestone, joining the late great Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlin
as the only players in NBA history to register three 60-plus point games in the
same season. Chamberlin did it 15 times in 1961-62; nine times in 1962-63; and
three times by Lillard, all coming this season.
The Trail Blazers still needed a win to
clinch a spot in the play-in game and led by Lillard as mentioned, they earned
a hard fought 134-133 win at the Brooklyn Nets (35-37), who had a chance to end
the playoff dreams of the boys from “Rip City,” but Caris LeVert, who had 37
points to lead the Nets but his game-winning jumper in the closing seconds did
not fall.
Lillard capped his magnificent three-game
stretch with 42 points and 12 assists going 13 for 22 from the field, including
8 for 14 from three-point range and 8 for 9 from the foul line. It was “Dame
Time” again in the final period as he registered 12 points in the fourth
quarter.
Along with helping put his team in
position to make the playoffs, Lillard told Haynes postgame that when he is not
practicing, he has been watching every single game that he could back at his
hotel room or the Trail Blazers’ meeting room.
From what he saw of the Nets, Lillard knew
winning this game was going to be really tough one against a team that has
nothing to lose, especially because they were without NBA champions and
perennial All-Stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
“Once I saw them play, I knew what we was
coming into tonight,” he said. “I’ve seen like three of their games and I knew
it was going to be this type of game. We weren’t going to come in here and just
get them out of there, you know? They play with a lot of effort. They play
together, they believe, and Cars LeVert is cold. So, we came out here and
earned another win.”
They especially earned the victory versus
the Grizzlies because their lead guard Ja Morant, the top candidate for Kia
Rookie of the Year had a career-high 35 points on 13 for 28 shooting, including
3 for 6 from three-point range in the loss.
Morant, who had been playing with a fractured
right thumb had been really struggling with his shot in restart connecting on
just 39.4 percent of his field goal attempts and on just 22.5 percent of his
three-pointers. In fact, he had connected on an abysmal 1 for 12 from
three-point range in the two prior meetings against the Trail Blazers.
“We just wanted to make it hard for him,”
Lillard said to Salters about how the Trail Blazers wanted to guard Morant.
“Obviously, he’s super explosive. A lot of speed, a lot of athleticism, and you
know, he had some tough finishes. So, we just wanted to do our best in making
it hard for him, and we did a good enough job to get the win.”
Lillard added about Morant, who scored 24
of his 35 points in the second half, “He’s a hell of a player. He made some
jumpers tonight. He got to the line a few times. He was getting to the rim. He
made plays. That’s why he’s a star already as a rookie because of what he’s
capable of and I’m just happy we was able to overcome that.”
This aforementioned run of greatness by
Lillard came on the heels of him not coming through in the clutch when he
missed his only two free throws with 18.6 seconds left and missed a three
pointer with 9.5 seconds left to fall 122-117 versus the Los Angeles Clippers
(49-23) on Aug. 8 on TNT.
After those two missed free throws, the
Clippers’ Patrick Beverly and perennial All-Star Paul George mocked Lillard he
simply brushed off and led him to say in his postgame presser, “Asking me about
Patrick Beverly, who I sent home before a the end of a game, Paul George just
got sent home by me last year in the playoffs, so they know that the reason
they’re reacting like that is because of what they expect from me, which is a
sign of respect. And it just shows what I’ve done at a high clip more times
than not. So, I’m not offended by it. If anything, it should just tell you how
much it hurt them to go through I what I put them through in those situations
previously.”
In the First-Round of the 2014 playoffs,
Lillard hit a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer in Game 6 between the
Houston Rockets and the Trail Blazers that sent the Trail Blazers into the
Semifinals for the first time since 2000. That shot also sent 2018 Kia MVP James
Harden, Beverly, and the Rockets home short of their championship dreams.
“To me that shows what they expect from me
down the stretch. They know what I do,” Lillard said in response postgame to
Beverly’s joy in his failure at the foul line. “He saw it first-hand when I was
a second-year player when he was in Houston. So, I’m sure he has a great memory
of that, which is why that drew that type of reaction from him when he saw me
come up short at the end of the game.”
Five years later, Lillard with one flick
of his right wrist nailed a long three-pointer also at the final buzzer in Game
5 of the opening-round against the Oklahoma City Thunder and simply broke up
the Thunder with Russell Westbrook and George being traded respectably to the
Rockets and Clippers.
What those two moments from those
postseasons and the hot streak Lillard put on in leading the Trail Blazers to
the playoffs shows that when the moments comes to rise up and be great, he can
do it without hesitation.
He especially showed that after his failure
in the clutch against the Clippers, and the Trail Blazers needed single point
he registered during their eight-game restart, particularly the last three
contests, which they won.
Along with Lillard and McCollum, Nurkic
and Anthony have been right in the middle of the Trail Blazers digging out of
that 3.5 game hole to reach the playoffs.
Nurkic in the eight-game restart has
averaged 17.6 points and 10.3 rebounds in 31.6 minutes, while Anthony has
averaged 16.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in the restart.
Nurkic, also known as the “Bosnian Beast”
was exceptional in the play-in game with 15 points and 17 rebounds in the first
half, finishing with 22 points and 21 rebounds, while Anthony scored 21 points,
going 10 for 10 from the charity stripe.
Before the hiatus, Nurkic and Collins were
on the verge of coming back. With the league on pause because of the pandemic
allowed them to really get right health wise both physically and mentally and
that has been a big help for the Trail Blazers.
Nurkic’s performance came of him learning
that his grandmother, who resides in Bosnia passed-away because of COVID-19,
which he revealed shortly before the play-in game against the Grizzlies on
Saturday afternoon.
“I didn’t have much to say about it. I
didn’t want to play. I think she made me play I guess,” he said in his postgame
presser after registering the third game of his career of 20 points, 20
rebounds and at least five assists.
“I can’t even fathom what he’s going
through having lost some people in my family, you know?” McCollum said of the
passing of his teammate’s grandmother. “It’s something you never get over. It’s
something you just try to get through. So, we’re just trying to support him,
and understanding that this is a very difficult time for him, and his family.”
Anthony also used this time to get into
the best shape possible, which he did, and that is a major reason why he has
played pretty well in the restart, especially with how he has made shots in the
clutch of this restart, especially from three-point range.
He did so in the first meeting of the
restart against the Grizzlies, which the Trail Blazers won 140-135 in overtime,
where he hit a three-pointer with 37.5 seconds left to tie the score at 124.
In the Trail Blazers 110-102 win versus
the Houston Rockets (44-28) on Aug. 4 on TNT, Anthony extended the lead by
hitting a three that extended the lead to 107-102 left in regulation.
Anthony, who missed his first five threes
on Saturday against the Grizzlies, connected on his sixth three-point attempt
with 20.2 seconds left in Saturday’s bout with the Grizzlies put some distance
between the Trail Blazers and the Grizzlies.
“He’s a Hall of Famer, you know? I think
it’s more disappointing that people are surprised by that,” Lillard said to
TNT’s Jared Greenberg after the win versus the Rockets about Anthony’s
contributions to the team. “He’s a Hall of Famer like I said. He’s a great
teammate, and that’s what we expect from him you know?”
“We put him in those positions because we
expect him to make those shots. We believe he’s gonna make those shots. And we
brought him here because we knew he would make a difference on our team and
he’s been doing that.”
A few moments before that in the fourth
quarter, McCollum hit a key jumper over Morant that put the Trail Blazers ahead
by six 119-113 with 1:20 left in regulation. In the final period, McCollum went
4 for 4 from the field when Morant was the primary defender guarding him.
After making that key jump shot, the
normally mild-mannered guard out of Lehigh University looked into the camera
and said that the Grizzlies “cannot [expletive] guard me.”
To put into perspective the kind of focus
the Trail Blazers had in clutch moments in this restart and the play-in game,
where they went overall 9-2, seven of those came in the clutch, with the score
within five points in the final five minutes, which led the NBA. They also led
the league in point differential in the clutch at +32, while also ranking No. 3
and No. 4 respectably in “The Association” in field goal percentage at 56 percent
and three-point percentage at 54 percent.
The Trail Blazers, who trailed 94-89 after
three quarters after leading 58-52 at intermission, outscored the Grizzlies
37-28 in the final period, authoring their fourth win in the restart after
trailing entering the fourth quarter. Lillard is a big reason the Trail Blazers
registered those comeback win by averaging 11 points in the final period in the
restart.
“We showed up. We showed up in these eight
games,” Anthony said postgame. “We became a different team throughout these
eight games. And we showed something different. We showed a different commitment
coming down here to this bubble.”
Entering the restart, the Portland Trail
Blazers had a 3.5 game mountain to climb to reach the playoffs. They climbed
that mountain, behind Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, the return of Jusuf
Nurkic and strong play from Carmelo Anthony.
Now they face another monumental task,
taking down the Top Seed in the West in the Los Angeles Lakers in the
First-Round of the 2020 Playoffs beginning on Tuesday night on TNT.
While they lost the season-series to them
2-1, the momentum they have gained from this 6-2 mark in the restart has them
primed and prepared to put their best foot forward in that series and see what
happens.
“I think, you know, the reason that we
compete so hard-the reason why we fought so hard to get in the playoffs is we
feel like we’re capable of doing, you know, anything,” Lillard said. “We can
beat anybody.”
“So now, we just got to get rested and get
ready for the next thing, you know? Our work is just beginning.”
Lillard added in his postgame presser, “I’ve
seen everybody saying, you know, what we are going to do to the Lakers? But the
Lakers, they’re the No. 1 Seed in the West for a reason. They go the best
player in the world (LeBron James) on their team.”
“But at the same time, we didn’t fight as
hard as we fought in the bubble [restart] to just say, ‘Alright, we the eighth
seed and go out there and just get beat up on.’”
“We feel like we have a chance in a series
against anybody in this league. We feel like we got a chance in this series,
and that’s how we’re going to approach it. We’re going to approach it with a
healthy level of respect for them for ourselves. Not as far as what anybody
else has to say or what other people think. We respect them [Lakers] for who
they are, and we have enough belief in ourselves to go in feeling like we can
win the series. I think its that simple.”
Information, statistics, and quotations
are courtesy of 8/4/2020 9 p.m. “Houston Rockets versus Portland Trail
Blazers,” on TNT, presented by State Farm with Ian Eagle, Stan Van Gundy, and
Jared Greenberg 8/11/2020 6:30 p.m. “Portland Trail Blazers versus Dallas
Mavericks,” on TNT, presented by State Farm with Ian Eagle, Stan Van Gundy, and
Chris Haynes 8/12/2020 11:35 p.m. edition of ESPN’s “Sportscenter” with John
Buccigross and John Anderson, with interview from Maria Taylor; 8/13/2020, 9
p.m. “Portland Trail Blazers versus Brooklyn Nets,” on TNT, presented by State
Farm with Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, and Chris Haynes; 8/14/2020 8 a.m.
edition of ESPN’s “Sportscenter,” from Los Angeles on ESPN 2 with Neil Everett
and Stan Verrett; 8/15/2020 2 p.m. “NBA Countdown,” presented by Draft Kings on
ABC with Maria Taylor, Jay Williams, Jalen Rose, and Paul Pierce; 8/15/2020
2:30 p.m. “Memphis Grizzlies versus Portland Trail Blazers,” Western Conference
Play-In, presented by State Farm on ABC with Mike Breen, Mark Jackson, and Lisa
Salters; https://www.espn.com/nba/player/gamelog/_/6606/damian-lillard;
and https://www.nba.com/20200815/MEMPOR#/boxscore/recap.
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