There's another explanation for Damian Lillard's subpar play against the Golden State Warriors than their stifling defense alone. Not that the Portland Trail Blazers star, of course, is using his injury to excuse away his struggles in the Western Conference Finals.
Shortly after Sunday's Game 3, another come-from-behind Warriors win, news broke that Lillard is suffering from separated ribs. He appeared to sustain the injury early in the second half of Game 2, when Golden State big man Kevon Looney landed on him near half court as the two fought for a loose ball. Lillard immediately winced upon taking the brunt of Looney's weight, rising to his feet in obvious pain.
Lillard, one of the defining stars of these playoffs so far, went 3-of-9 in the remainder of Game 2, missing several key shots down the stretch and being stripped by Andre Iguodala on the game's final possession. Those labors carried over to Saturday night, when he scored 19 points on 5-of-18 shooting and committed five turnovers.
Immediately after word of the injury became public, though, his camp was already downplaying its role in Lillard's uncharacteristic performance.
“Not a story,” a source told ESPN's Tim MacMahon, “he always plays through injuries.”
Lillard is averaging 20.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and 4.7 turnovers against Golden State. He's shooting just 32.6 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from beyond the arc, doing the vast majority of his damage from the perimeter, limited as a penetrator by the Warriors' aggressive strategy of forcing the ball out of his hands with multiple defenders.
No team has ever come back from an 0-3 deficit in the playoffs. And with Lillard struggling, injury-related or not, it's even more unlikely the Blazers will be first to make history by coming back to beat the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.
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