The month of January hasn’t been particularly type to the Portland Trail Blazers. Entering Wednesday’s sport with the Utah Jazz, that they had a 4-8 file within the month, and after they trailed Utah by 12 within the first half, it seemed like they had been about to select up their ninth loss and slip again to thirteenth place within the Western Conference. And then, nicely, Damian Lillard occurred.
Lillard’s particular person scoring has been all that is stored the Blazers afloat in January. He entered Wednesday averaging 35.6 factors in his previous 9 video games, and his 29.3 factors per sport common on the season has him inside spitting distance of his 30-point profession excessive. Yet all of that pales compared to what he did on Wednesday towards Utah.
The remaining line? A stellar 60 factors on 21-of-29 taking pictures, making him simply the fourth participant in NBA historical past to attain 60 factors on 70 % taking pictures, becoming a member of Wilt Chamberlain (4 occasions), David Thompson and Karl Malone. It was the third 60-point efficiency of the season, and it was each bit as spectacular as Donovan Mitchell’s 71 factors and Luka Doncic’s 60-point triple-double in his one-man comeback towards the New York Knicks. Between the 6:42 mark of the third quarter and the 11:10 mark of the fourth, Lillard was the one Blazer to attain. Fortunately for Portland, he gave them 20 straight factors in that stretch.
For the sport, Lillard got here simply shy of scoring half of Portland’s 124 complete factors. He made greater than half of their 3-pointers, sinking 9 of the 17 the Blazers made as a group, and he hit 60 % of the group’s free throws, drilling 9 of their 15 makes. His 21 subject targets had been greater than the remainder of Portland’s beginning lineup made mixed (18).
Lillard’s fourth 60-point sport of his profession moved him right into a tie with Michael Jordan and James Harden. They path solely Kobe Bryant’s six and Wilt Chamberlain’s 32. Given the current scoring exploits within the NBA, it will exhausting to think about that this would be the final time he’ll obtain this feat.
It was one of many nice particular person performances of the season, and Portland’s historical past means that it wanted nearly each single level to return away with the 134-124 victory. After all, it was solely two weeks in the past that Portland misplaced a 50-point Lillard efficiency towards Cleveland, which was the third 50-point lack of Lillard’s profession. Five days later, they wasted a 44-point gem of his towards Denver.
The Blazers nonetheless have the NBA’s Twenty second-ranked protection, and their offense plummets by nearly 13 factors per 100 possessions each time Lillard goes to the bench. If they want Lillard to attain 60 simply to outlive a January dalliance with the Jazz, this group might be in a good bit of bother shifting ahead.
