Damian Lillard still vividly remembers his battles with Russell Westbrook, including his most recent one on Jan. 15 when his Portland Trail Blazers took on Westbrook's new team, the Houston Rockets.
Nearly a year ago, it was Lillard who crushed Westbrook's playoff hopes with a dagger 3-pointer to send him home, along with the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder as the Blazers won their first-round series in five games.
The two were at each other's throats again, this time with Westbrook at the foul line after a hard foul from Lillard. Westbrook did his usual flexing, hoping to intimidate Lillard, who recalled the interaction:
“As he was going to the line, he said, ‘That’s automatic two points. Two points,'” Lillard recalled, according to Jason Quick of The Athletic.
Once Lillard walked behind Westbrook to put himself behind the 3-point line for the first free throw, he talked some trash:
“You a 60 percent free-throw shooter,” Lillard remembers telling Westbrook. “You gonna miss both of them.”
Westbrook looked back to bark at Lillard and said, “Impossible!”
“And you can see, if you look at the (video) clip, he says '82 (percent)!'”
Westbrook was actually a 79% foul shooter at the time, but had shot 65.6% the prior season — a career-low mark. Westbrook rattled the first one in and out, giving Lillard the chance for one last jab to end his combination:
The Lillard-Westbrook feud is alive and well, rages on pic.twitter.com/LmNRP5KoB9
— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) January 16, 2020
“I said, '50 percent now,'” Lillard recalled.
Westbrook was determined to let Lillard get the last word, barking back once again, hoping to distract him from the free throw at hand:
“What seed you all? What playoff seed are you all?” Lillard remembered him saying.
Lillard put an end to it, twisting his fist with the gut-punch that hurts the most:
“I said, ‘You know I’m the last person you want to see in the playoffs.’”
The Blazers have made life complicated for Westbrook over the years, especially when Lillard is there to lace them up across the other end of the floor.
Lillard walked away with bragging rights once again, this time with a 117-107 Blazers win in their first meeting since Nov. 18. The two point guards will meet again on Wednesday after splitting the last two meetings in Houston.
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