Playing on a small market team in the NBA is hard, but Portland Trailblazers’ star Damian Lillard wanted this. The only question remaining is: When will Damian Lillard get help?
For the second-straight season, the Portland Trailblazers were eliminated in the first round of the NBA Playoffs after Thursday’s 126-115 loss in Game 6 against the Nuggets. Denver went on a 24-5 run in the last seven minutes of the game to win the series 4-2.
“I mean, we didn’t win a championship so obviously where we are now isn’t good enough,” said Lillard after Game 6. “I don’t know what a shakeup looks like or what changes will be made or could be made but obviously as it is, wasn’t good enough.”
After the Blazers held a 13-point lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Lillard only scored 5 points on 1-for-7 shooting in the final quarter to end the night. The 30-year-old finished with 28 points, 13 assists, and 4 rebounds in 43 minutes of play.
This loss comes just two days after their 147-140 double-overtime loss in Game 5 after being given one of the single great shooting performances the NBA has ever seen.
Lillard finished with 55 points and 10 assists on 17-of-24 shooting from the field, including 12-of-17 coming from 3-point range in Game 5. Lillard broke the record (11) for the most 3s made in a playoff game in NBA history and became the first player in NBA history with at least 50 points, 10 assists, and 10 three-pointers in a game, regular season, or playoffs, according to ESPN.
“It don’t matter,” said a distraught Lillard in his postgame interview. “We lost the game.”
Lillard had little to no help throughout the game, especially in the overtime periods. The rest of the Blazers only scored two of the 19 total points through both periods, Lillard provided the other 17 while hitting a barrage of 3s to just force the periods.
“This is as close to a perfect performance as I almost have ever seen, he is completely down in the postgame (interview),” said NBA Insider Brian Windhorst on Lillard’s body-language. “I hate to say this, it reminds me of LeBron (James) at the end of his tenure in Cleveland.”
In the era of super teams, not once has Lillard had a true superstar playing alongside him and has given no indication on leaving Portland to join one. Current Trailblazer CJ McCollum and now-retired LaMarcus Aldridge who left in the summer of 2015 ,were the best to play alongside Lillard in Portland.
To put it simply, Portland’s front office has done an abysmal job in surrounding Lillard with the talent he needs to win playoff games. The result has led to the Trailblazers having only made the Western Conference Finals once since Lillard entered the league in 2012.
“I do want to win a championship,” said Lillard in 2019 to NBA Insider Chris B. Haynes. “But there’s other stuff that means more to me. It’s almost like I’m not willing to sell myself out for that instead of impacting this.”
The only word to describe the relationship between Lillard and the Trailblazers is loyalty. Despite the consistent postseason flaws, Lillard has remained confident in winning with the team and riding with the guys on Portland to the end.
In a league that’s run by the players, Damian Lillard has all the power in the world to demand a trade similar to how James Harden and others have.
Lillard needs to decide whether the relationships he’s formed and the impact he’s had on the city of Portland mean more to him than trying to win a championship in a loaded Western Conference.
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