It took him a while but Damian Lillard is finally getting the praise and recognition he deserves as one of the best scorers and players in the NBA. Without him, the Portland Trail Blazers wouldn't even be a playoff team.
That was certainly clear last night. Lillard put the team on his back once again with a majestic 55-point, 10-assists explosion, yet his teammates let him down with crucial mistakes when it mattered the most.
His performance against the Denver Nuggets is already in the record books, as he set the mark for the most three-pointers in a playoff game (12) and had the first 55+ point, 10+ assists game in playoff history.
NBA And NFL Stars React To Damian Lillard's Record Night
Lillard forced overtime twice with contested three-pointers and only turned the ball over once in over 50 minutes of play. He scored 17 of the Blazers' last 19 points and his NBA and NFL colleagues were just in awe of his magnificent scoring outburst:
"I had like 4 tweets I wanted to write to describe this MASTERPIECE by Damian Lamonte Ollie Lillard Sr, but I am seriously at a loss for words..." Kevin Durant tweeted before saying that he was on 'God Mode' and that watching him was 'a spiritual experience.'
Sports stars such as Josh Allen, AJ Brown, Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, Ja Morant, Stephen Curry, Josh Hart, Donovan Mitchell - and pretty much everyone related to sports - also took to Twitter to pay their respects to Lillard for his performance.
Now, the Blazers are on the verge of elimination and will head back to Moda Center to try and even up the series at 3 wins apiece. Hopefully, they won't need Lillard to have a 50+ point effort again and his teammates will also step up.
