Dame goes for 61 and keeps the magic going
Damian Lillard scored 60 for the third time this season
Plenty of other people are going to write the story of Damian Lillard fighting through the tragedy of the unlikely and shocking death of his cousin Brandon during the early weeks of the pandemic. I can’t pretend to know how this all made Lillard feel, nor do I want to dwell on it, because it doesn’t take much to understand how truly sad it all was. But his cousin Brandon, Dame believes, was using a little divine intervention on the Lillard shot in the 4th quarter of their thrilling 134-131 win, that made Don Nelson’s 1969 look as weak as the weed from 1969.
“That was my cousin, RIP Chef B, I think that was him dropping that in for me,” Lillard said after the game.
“Dame’s shot was way higher than Nelly’s shot. Even he knows that, he’s probably watching” Terry Stotts said, after the game, when mentioning the historical comparison to what Lillard just did. Stotts is totally right. Dame brought out the dab rig, which blows out the 1969 Nelly Kush.
Carmelo Anthony resorted to more usual methods of just begging the basketball gods. “I probably said 20 ‘please.’ I said please repeatedly. It wasn’t meant for us to lose when that shot went in. That’s what I said after that.” Anthony, by the way, was a rock for the Blazers in crunch time once again, aiding Lillard’s 61 with 26 of his own, including more big shots in the 4th quarter. With the performance, Lillard joined Wilt Chamberlain as the only other player in NBA history to score 60 points in three or more games.
And another rock for this team, maligned at times and too often included in fake trades by fans, CJ McCollum showed up to drain two free-throw to ice the victory and put Portland up 134-131. He did all this, we learned after the game from Dwight Jaynes, with a fracture in his lower back. And while fans are rightfully worried, the Blazers are not.
“CJ’s a warrior,” Anthony said. “He’s in the fight with us. We just got to rally with him and take him through it. He’s playing through it, he’s showing a different type of toughness right now.”
Another Blazer who was crucial in the fight was Hassan Whiteside, making his return after a two-game absence. In those two games, against the Clippers and Philadelphia, the Blazers, who rely heavily on their frontcourt, lost the rebounding battle. But with Whiteside back tonight, as well as more activity from Zach Collins, the Blazers outrebounded the Mavericks by 11. Whiteside also had a crucial dunk on a pass from Lillard when the game was in a back-and-forth that looked like something out NBA Jam.
Whiteside, frankly, was the best big man for the Blazers in this game. Nurkic delivered his truly first bad game of the bubble games but luckily Whiteside was there to pick the Blazers up and step up when Nurkic finally had a letdown. This is why any hopes the Blazers have beyond simply making the playoffs also will rely heavily on how well Whiteside does his job. Everybody has been tough on Whiteside for missing games, even doubted the reasons, myself included, but he proved with his performance just how important, and game-changing, he can be for the Blazers.
Whiteside was a +15, second only tonight to the man Gary Trent Jr.(+24), who also got the start in the second half. It’s worth wondering whether we will see that look again as the Blazers play a Brooklyn Nets team that loves to spread teams out and jack up a lot of 3-pointers.
And the Blazers finally have a chance for a result that was highly unlikely coming in. One game left to clinch the 8th seed in the West, allowing them the upper-hand in a play-in scenario, meaning they have to only win one game instead of two. One game for Damian Lillard to pull off a mathematical miracle. But with Damian Lillard, you have to realize that miracles are possible, if not likely.