Portland observer., March 08, 2023, Page 5, Image 5

March 8, 2023
Page 5
s ports
Dame Scores Career-Best
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Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, left, drives to the
basket on Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr., right, during
the second half of an NBA basketball game in Portland, Ore.,
Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023. Lillard scored a franchise record 71 points
as the Blazers won 131-114. (AP Photo/Steve Dykes)
Lillard has 71
pts and 13 3s,
then gets drug
tested
AP- The celebration sur-
rounding Damian Lillard’s re-
cord-breaking performance was
short-lived.
Lillard set franchise and career
marks with 71 points — tied for
the most in the NBA this season
and 13 3-pointers in the Portland
Trail Blazers’ 131 -114 victory
over the Houston Rockets on Sun-
day night.
“I enjoy those moments in the
game when I’m just going after
people,” Lillard said, “when I’m
in attack mode.”
But soon after the streamers
fell to the court and the crowd
headed for the exits, Lillard
was summoned for a drug test.
Turns out, the seven-time All-
Star who’s unafraid of taking a
3-pointer from half court is afraid
of needles.
“I know I’ve got a lot of tattoos,
but when you’re doing a blood
draw, it’s different from tattoos. It
brought me down from here to the
floor,” Lillard said gesturing with
his hand raised then dropping it.
And Lillard got tested on the
night he tied Cleveland’s Dono-
van Mitchell for the most points
in a game this season after
Mitchell also scored 71 in a win
over Chicago on Jan. 2. His 13
3-pointers were also one shy of
the NBA record set by Golden
State’s Klay Thompson in 2018.
Thompson’s Warriors team-
mate Stephen Curry (2016) and
Chicago’s Zach LaVine (2019)
also made 13 3s. Lillard broke
his own franchise mark of 61
points, which he’d done twice,
on a 3-pointer with 4:42 left that
also topped his previous career
record for 3s, which was 11.
Known for his humility, Lil-
lard was unsure how to mark the
occasion.
“I think any hooper enjoys
those moments when you’re hot,
you’re in attack mode, you’re
feeling good,” Lillard said. “But
it’s the stuff afterward that I
struggle with, like when I walked
off the court, was I supposed to be
overly excited, or what?”
In the final minutes of the
game, the crowd at the Moda
Center was on its feet, phones re-
cording the moment, while chant-
ing “MVP! MVP!”
“It really, really was a mas-
terful performance,” Blazers
coach Chauncey Billups said.
“It was a piece of art. That was
incredible.”
Even Mitchell took notice.
“My mom calls me and says @
Dame_Lillard tied your record
… you gotta get 72 now,” Mitch-
ell posted on Twitter with some
laughing emojis.
Lillard left the game with 44
seconds left, tied with Mitchell,
Elgin Baylor (1960) and David
Robinson (1994) for the eighth-
most points scored in a game in
NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain
owns the league record with 100
for Philadelphia against New
York on March 2, 1962, at Her-
shey, Pennsylvania.
Lillard had 41 points and
eight 3-pointers by halftime.
It was a career high in a half
for Lillard and the most points
in a half for any player in the
league this season. He had 50
by the start of the fourth quar-
ter. In the end, he made 22 of
38 shots from the floor and he
hit on 13 of his 22 3-point at-
tempts. He was also 14 of 14
from the foul line.
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