Do not let Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard get into a groove. This should be fairly obvious, but the Oklahoma City Thunder let it happen anyway, and this was the result:
That’s 17 points in three minutes. Just like that.
Damian had only scored 14 before that outburst, which helped lead the Blazers to a 115-110 win. “Lillard Time” is becoming quite the occasion in Portland, mainly because Lillard doesn’t have all that much help around him.
Lillard is the fourth-highest paid player in the NBA, and wandering minds have wondered whether he’d want to take Lillard Time somewhere else with a better chance of winning a championship. After he became the first player in the history of the Moda Center to earn 40 points and 10 assists in a game in the Blazers Friday loss to Golden State, he was asked just that.
“It’s always good to be the first one to do something,’’ Lillard said to Jason Quick of CSNNW.com. “Especially being part of an organization I plan on being a part of for my entire career. It’s an honor, but I would have liked for it to be in a winning effort.”
“When I really like what a place is about, that’s what I want to stick to. I want to stick to things that click with who I am as a person.”
It’s natural for Portland fans to worry because of the history of players who have left in their prime such as LaMarcus Aldrige, Clyde Drexler, Rasheed Wallace, Bill Walton, not to mention the bad decisions and bad luck such as with Sam Bowie and Greg Oden. So the re-assuring comments from Lillard despite the Blazers 16-24 record this season should assuage some of those fears, at least in the interim.
“(Wanting to leave) is the easy thing to do. It is. That’s the easy thing to do,’’ Lillard said. “I have always been the type of person, when things are hard, to not think about how hard it is now. I think about what it will be like when we get through this, and how it turns into what I want it to turn into. Then, that will be the ultimate satisfaction.’’
So for now, Lillard’s bursts of scoring aren’t leaving the Rose City any time soon. Which means the Moda Center will likely bear witness to more nights where Lillard takes over and shocks the city he has fully embraced.