Down by three points with 6.8 seconds left, Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard uncharacteristically passed the ball up instead of rising for a potential game-tying 3-pointer against the Boston Celtics. Lillard looked back on the play, noting that he simply “overthought” it.
Per Andrew Lopez of ESPN, Lillard's initial goal was to create some space and rise up for the 3-pointer. But upon catching the ball, Celtics defenders pounced on Lillard. And so the guard found wide-open Jusuf Nurkif who cut the lead to just one. Lillard shared what was going through his head during that critical play:
“In my mind, I was like, ‘Let me catch it and fire it as soon as I get space.' I knew we didn't have no timeouts,” Lillard said. “I caught it, and I was going to shoot it, but I saw Nurk come wide-open as soon as I caught it. I think I just overthought it.
“I threw it to Nurk, and he caught it, laid it up. In my mind, I was thinking, we cut it to one. It'll be four seconds, maybe a little over four seconds. We foul. That's enough time for me to get the ball up court and get in range to get a shot off, even if they make both free throws.
It seemed that it was the right play to make. But as Damian Lillard looked back, he believes that he could've risen up immediately after he caught it. His alias is Logo Lillard for a reason.
“But it turned out not to work in our favor. But looking back it, it would have been a tough shot to get up, but I probably should have got the shot up as soon as I caught it.”
The Blazers have a chance to redeem themselves on Tuesday against the Houston Rockets.
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