Damian Lillard broke the Oklahoma City Thunder's hearts when he nailed a 30-foot buzzer-beating 3-pointer to propel the Portland Trail Blazers to a 118-115 series-clinching win in Game 5 of the teams' first-round matchup.
After the game, Thunder star Paul George said that Lillard's game-winner was a bad shot, and that it won't be told in news stories because he made it. Lillard took to Twitter to respond.
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) April 24, 2019
Lillard had a more serious response to George's comments when asked by Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes.
“It’s a bad shot, but I was 8-of-12 from 30-plus feet in the series and I work on it regularly. … It wasn’t a bad shot tonight.”
It's hard to argue with Lillard here. Indeed, it wasn't a bad shot if he was making 30-foot jumpers all series. The Thunder should've known better, but it's too late for them now.
To be fair, the Thunder did what they thought was best defensively. They forced Dame to take an ill-advised shot in the last seconds of the game.
No one can take anything away from George, who was the one defending Lillard in the closing moments of Game 5. But at the end of the day, bad shot or not, Lillard hit the shot.
As the old adage says, it's only bad when you miss it.
The Blazers will now advance to the Western Conference semifinals, where they will face the winner of the Denver Nuggets-San Antonio Spurs series.
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