LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Clippers blew out the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night, 116-86. The final score somehow didn't even truly indicate just how dominant Tyronn Lue's club was in what was their seventh consecutive win over Damian Lillard's Blazers.
Portland turned the ball over 30 times on the night. They also shot just 38.1 percent from the field and 21.6 percent from beyond the arc. No one struggled more than Lillard.
Dame shot just 4-of-15 from the field, finishing with 12 points and four turnovers. He also attempted eight triples and made none, marking the eighth time in his career he attempted eight and made zero.
It wasn't just Monday night, though. Over the last six games between them, the Clippers have held Lillard to just 17.2 points per game on 31.7 percent shooting from the field.
Damian Lillard's last 6 games against the Clippers, all losses:
• 22 points – 9-of-23 FG
• 16 points – 5-of-15 FG
• 22 points – 10-of-23 FG
• 20 points – 3-of-14 FG
• 11 points – 2-of-14 FG
• 12 points – 4-of-15 FGThat's 17.2 PPG on 31.7% FG.
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 26, 2021
After the game, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue explained how his team made life difficult on Damian Lillard once again.
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“We just try to blitz him, keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible,” Lue said after the game. “We know he's a dangerous scorer and he can get going any time and we all know that, the world knows that, so we just tried to limit his shots as much as possible by blitzing him and taking him out of pick-and-roll situations. Only limiting him to 15 shots was pretty good. Just try to keep him off balance and I thought our team defense did a great job. Like I said, it's not one person, it's all five guys and our guys did a great job of keying in on him.”
"We just try to blitz him, keep the ball out of his hands as much as possible. We know he's. dangerous scorer. he can get going at any time. We all know that and the world knows that… I thought our team defense did a good job."
Ty Lue on limiting Damian Lillard. pic.twitter.com/LlNzd7hwRS
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 26, 2021
In his last three games against the Clippers, Lillard has shot 3-of-14, 2-of-14, and 4-of-15, respectively, from the field. The emphasis was clearly on making life for the Portland guards tough, getting stops, and getting out in transition.
“I think our activity defensively was really good,” Lue added. “Not too many game plan mistakes today. I thought we did a good job, we had a couple times we went under on CJ when we weren’t supposed to, but for the most part we did a good job sticking to the game plan. I think offensively PG and Reggie, like you said, struggled, but we did a great job of moving the basketball. I thought we got open shots. We had 37 assists, but we should have had 50, I thought we had 15 shots that were wide open that we didn't make. We keep playing that way, we're gonna be pretty good, gotta just continue to keep building. Gonna talk about that all season long.”
The Clippers will take on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. PT. The young Cavs have come up with big wins over the Atlanta Hawks and Denver Nuggets, so LA can't get caught looking ahead to the rematch against the Blazers on Friday night. This time, the game will be up in Portland with a sellout crowd waiting. You can bet Damian Lillard will not struggle shooting nearly as bad as he did Monday.
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