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Monday 4 November 2019 12:25, UK
Damian Lillard's opening-round heroics have permanently altered the narrative around himself and the Portland Trail Blazers, writes Sky Sports NBA analyst Mark Deeks.
Paul George, Oklahoma City Thunder wing and six-time NBA All-Star, is one of the best defensive players in the league. His combination of size, speed, athleticism and smarts make him almost uniquely equipped to defend opposing players at any position, and to as good of a standard as almost any other.
It was therefore inevitable and correct that he was the one charged with the task of checking Portland Trail Blazers guard Lillard in the final seconds of their tied Game 5 last week.
Prevent Lillard from scoring, and the Thunder live to fight another overtime. Allow him to score, and their season is over. George was the ideal man for such a circumstance, and while an argument can be made for potentially trapping or double-teaming so as to force someone else to try and do something, Lillard never got near to conventional shooting range. He just rose up from a distance no one ever normally deliberately shoots from.
It didn't matter. George's defense didn't work. In one of the biggest and best shots in NBA history, Lillard pulled up from just inside the car park as time expired to drain an extremely tough, contested, fall-away three-pointer from unfathomable range, over the arm of an outstretched George, whose knowledge that the shot was coming and resultant good clean contest of it made no difference. With that shot, Lillard made his 10th three-pointer of the game, scored his 50th point, and the Blazers won both the game and the series.
This is what Lillard does now. He takes on the NBA's very best at their own game, and he wins.
In our previous look at the early-series passivity of Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic - something he has very much reversed since then - we looked at how the much shorter nature of playoff series places more emphasis on brilliant individual performances in a way that a long regular season doesn't.
This becomes even truer in single-possession situations. In stepping up in an elimination game, in the playoffs, after two consecutive postseason sweeps in the two previous seasons, Lillard reaffirmed his status as being one of the few players in the game to whom you can turn and ask to win a huge game.
Comparisons to Kyrie Irving are inevitable. The duo play the same position and play it fairly similarly; their games defined by the ability to consistently hit incredibly difficult shots and the ability to create them off the dribble. The pair are elite talents and exquisite examples of what the point guard position has become; explosive, dynamic, and with the ability to take over a game.
Despite this, prior to this postseason, it felt as though Lillard had not garnered the credence and kudos befitting of one so special. Everyone knows Lillard is an excellent player, certainly, and respect among his peers is telling. Yet it is Irving who enjoys the fame, the greater reputation and the microscope.
To be sure, the platform that Kyrie has occupied thus far in his career is a big part of why. Until demanding to be traded in the summer of 2017, and subsequently getting his wish, Irving had been playing alongside LeBron James, which is a surefire strategy for anyone getting noticed.
Such status also afforded him plenty of big-time postseason outings, including one NBA championship title, one he made the winning shot in. Notwithstanding the above and the increased difficulty and intensity of postseason play, the platform on which a player performs does not much affect the quality of their play, yet it does do so much to define their legacy.
By contrast, Lillard, lacking that elite level of help, has somewhat toiled away in the playoffs. The Trail Blazers have never been poor in his time there; they have made the playoffs in all but his first season, have three seasons above 50 wins in that time, and just secured the third seed in a perpetually tough Western Conference for the second season in a row. The fortunes of his team however mirror much of his own perception among fanbases; good, perhaps very good, but not good enough to win anything. And none of this has been helped by playing in the unfavourable Pacific time zone.
Lillard, though, has never expressed a desire to leave his team. Indeed, just as much as he should be beatified for his play, so should he be for his leadership.
Lillard's Blazers team massively handicapped itself financially with a colossal overspend in the summer of 2016, making it very difficult to improve or change the roster henceforth. In spending an awful lot of money on the Allen Crabbe and Evan Turner-types of this world without getting Lillard the quality of help a title contender would need, they instead forced themselves to nibble around the edge.
To their credit, the Blazers have done so well in that time, most notably in the trade to acquire Jusuf Nurkic from Denver. Yet given that the first six years of Lillard's career had seen only two playoff series victories, as well as LaMarcus Aldridge depart without being replaced, Lillard had a legitimate gripe that his best years might be wasted outside of true title contention. In an era of heightened player power availed by LeBron and exploited by Kyrie among others, Lillard could have wanted out.
He didn't. Instead, he wanted in. Instead of going to ownership and demanding a trade under the threat of not re-signing, Lillard went to ownership and sought to glean how they envisioned building a championship calibre team in Portland.
Instead of going to find one, he wanted to build one. Instead of passing the blame onto the overspend and insufficient talents around him, Lillard took his own accountability; coming away from that meeting with the understanding that his own game must improve if the Blazers were to compete.
Lillard improved his defensive game (once his greatest weakness) and also developed in his ability to exploit the huge level of defensive attention his own offensive game attracted (something very much apparent during CJ McCollum's brief injury absence in the final two weeks of the regular season).
Accountability is the thing that binds effort to results, and in taking as much accountability as he requested of those around him, Lillard has made the leap to top-tier talent, and moved his team from pretender to conference contender.
A leader is the commander of a group, the principal player, the motivator and the solace. A leader is persuasive, empowering, confident, passionate, loyal and focus. A leader on a basketball court seeks out the challenges, takes them on, backs up his colleagues, carries them when they need him to, steps back and builds their confidence when they don't.
A leader on and off the court has respect not just through their individual abilities, but through their determination, demeanour and desire.
Lillard is a true leader, and has become one of the very best shot-makers in the world. Let us not overlook Portland again for as long as he is there.
