Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard has become a man of many nicknames, one of which being “Logo Lillard,” which was popularized after he hit a number of deep threes during the 2019 All-Star Game.
Naturally, Lillard's reputation for hitting bombs grew exponentially after his series-winning triple to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs.
The Blazers guard told “Around the NBA” host Ernie Johnson he plans to launch a half-court three when play resumes, saying he can comfortably pull up from that range.
“ I can pull up from half courtcomfortably.” 👀@Dame_Lillard promised Coach Stotts that he is gonna try this in a game when the season comes back 😂🤣 #RipCity
(Via @NBA) pic.twitter.com/YeQIwwhJ2b
— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) April 9, 2020
Lillard is slowly becoming one of the foremost “gunners” in the NBA. In fact, Lillard made the deep three a focus following a 2018 playoff loss to the New Orleans Pelicans (via Kirk Goldsberry of ESPN):
“We worked on deep ones in so many different ways,” Lillard said.
He spent hours working during the 2018 offseason, putting himself through intense drills that would eventually make game situations feel easier.
“Shooting it off the bounce, shooting them without jumping, shooting them with no momentum, shooting them from a deep squat and raise up and shoot it,” he said. “You know, just uncomfortable positions but still trying to shoot an accurate shot.”
Lillard has taken a whopping 114 three-point attempts from at least 30 feet or more this season. Perhaps more impressively, he has made 49 of those attempts, which in essence means he is shooting 43 percent on all those deep bombs. That is incredibly prolific, with maybe just Stephen Curry having the ability to shoot that efficiently at that range.
In any case, Lillard is determined to show off a little something extra if and when play resumes.
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