Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard is absolutely on fire lately. Coming off a 44-point outburst during the Blazers' 123-117 win over the defending champion Golden State Warriors on Valentine's Day, Lillard said this type of win was just what Portland needed heading into the All-Star Break.

After the victory, Lillard opened up to ESPN about what the win over Golden State means to Portland, who had lost the previous seven meetings with the Warriors.

“Just going into the break, the standings in the West are really tight right now,” Lillard said. “We just needed this win going into the break for good momentum against a really good team, the defending champs, for confidence reasons and for our rhythm. Just for our momentum going into the second half of the season.”

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The All-Star point guard, who has scored at least 39 points in his last three games, had 44 points on an impressive 14-of-25 shooting from the field and a perfect 12-of-12 mark from the free-throw line. He also added four 3-pointers made, a team-high eight assists, three rebounds and two steals against Golden State.

Lillard will be making his third trip to the All-Star Game this weekend, his first appearance since the 2015 All-Star Game.

“Just to enjoy it,” Lillard said of his mentality heading to Los Angeles for All-Star Weekend. “It feels much better going in there coming off a big win. I think it's a lot of credit to our team's success this year. The past two years that I didn't make it, we weren't having as good of a year as a team.”

On the 2017-18 season, Lillard is currently ranked as the sixth leading scorer in the NBA at 26.1 points per game.