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Portland Trail Blazers superstar point guard Damian Lillard was defended like Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry on Thursday against the Brooklyn Nets, who were getting the ball out of Lillard's hands either as soon as he crossed half-court or sometimes even before by trapping him.
Lillard has seen this defense before. Jrue Holiday and the New Orleans Pelicans swarmed the Blazers star in the first round of the 2018 playoffs with this tactic. Portland got swept by the Pelicans and Lillard only averaged 18.5 points on 35.2 percent shooting from the field and 30.0 percent from beyond the arc.
After the Blazers defeated the Nets to secure a spot in the play-in game, Lillard spoke to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports about how he learned from his past mistakes against the Pelicans and Warriors to become the lethal scorer he is today.
“I’ve never [seen that] before. Maybe once, but not like that,” Damian Lillard told Yahoo Sports after the Blazers’ 134-133 victory to claim the eighth seed in the West. “Like, bruh. Even when they were in a zone, they boxed-and-one. We ran our zone offense and [a defender] just followed me around and denied me.
“It was harder for me then. I took it hard. Every time people mention that [Pelicans] series to me, I just say I got better from that. I improved and I think it has shown. Because tonight, it was even worse than New Orleans with how aggressive and early [the trap] was.”
The Blazers star poured in 42 points against the Nets and he shot over 50 percent from the field and 3. The five-time All-Star averaged 37.6 points per game in the seeding contests.
Lillard and the Blazers have to defeat Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies to get into the 2020 playoffs. The winner of the play-in game will face LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the postseason.
