The Portland Trail Blazers needed a win badly. And on a night where they missed the other half of its star guard duo, the Blazers turned to Damian Lillard to carry them on Martin Luther King Jr. day.
Lillard set multiple records in Portland's thrilling 129-124 overtime victory over the Golden State Warriors. For one, he recorded his career-high in points with a masterful 61-point performance. This also set the Blazers franchise record in points and is currently the highest point total in a game this season. Likewise, Lillard knocked down a career-best 11 triples, which is also now an all-time Blazers record.
After his record-setting night, Lillard spoke post-game about how his two game-clinching freethrows served as poetic justice for some of his missed opportunities in the past.
“A couple of years ago, I had 58 and I got fouled on a three. I missed two out of three and got stuck at 59. Earlier this year, I had 60, but we lost.” Lillard said, via NBA.com, before C.J. McCollum doused him with well-deserved splash.
“Clinching the game, I felt that I had a great performance in a game that we needed to win, which is the most important thing. When I got to the line, I was like, ‘this is the kind of game I needed to have for us to win' so I was just happy with that.”
It was certainly a dazzling performance worthy of the history books for the four-time All-Star. Nonetheless, as evidenced by his post-game spiel, getting the win was the most important part.
The Blazers surely needed this one as they currently sit at 10th in the Western Conference standings and are two games behind the 8th seeded Memphis Grizzlies. Portland will likely have to lean on their superstar point guard a little bit more with the myriad of injuries that they have.
Does Lillard have enough more Herculean efforts like this one in him, though?
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