All that was missing was victory for the evening of Damian Lillard ends without a hitch. In the presence of many members of his family who made the trip to Oklahoma City, Damian Lillard needed 21 points to pass Clyde Drexler in the ranking of the best scorer in the history of the Blazers franchise.
Even if the party would have been more beautiful during a home game, the Portland point guard did the job, reaching 18,041 points at the end of the third quarter from the throwing line while the score remained undecided (86 -85).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA6fWB7fjps
A wink from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
It will have been until the end since the Thunder finally won on the wire, 123-121. “Lady Time” was however close to being the hero of the match by getting rid of the defense of Lu Dort to go score the baseline with 3.2 seconds remaining. But Shai Gilgeous-Alexander obviously didn’t hear it that way, since the OKC star punctuated the game with a “buzzer beater”… Like a nod to his evening opponent, whose speciality !
Even though the atmosphere wasn’t as euphoric because of the loss, Chauncey Billups still paid tribute to his “franchise player” by presenting him with the match ball and a belt in the style of boxers to celebrate his record. “We would have felt better with the victory, but we will go get it on Wednesday”, he told his players in the locker room.
The congratulations were still numerous, starting with those of Joe Cronin, the GM of the Blazers, who split a press release for the occasion after offering the match ball to Damian Lillard in the locker room.
“Damian’s commitment to Portland is now forever marked by this prestigious career milestone. His dedication, humility and hard work have been the pillars of his journey to this exact moment. On behalf of the organization, we would like to congratulate Damian on this great achievement and we look forward to seeing many more.”
A relief for the whole team
The leader also confided in this great accomplishment, even if he assured that he never focused on it.
“It’s a great feeling to reach this summit. It was a goal of mine and the roster has so many players, our franchise history is so great, so to finally be number 1 is a special accomplishment that I’m proud of.”did he declare. “Even in tonight’s game, I wasn’t playing focused on breaking the record. I was playing the game just to try to win it. I knew it would happen eventually. »
Chauncey Billups for his part spoke of a relief to see this little “circus” come to an end, a team tending to lose its bearings and become unbalanced when approaching this kind of record…
“All he really cared about was winning the game, like the rest of us”he first said after the meeting. “What I felt, and I’m sure he felt too, is just that we’re happy it’s over and he’s finally gotten past it. Because I felt like the team was rushing a bit for him. In the first half, I found that we tried to force it a bit to be able to move on. It’s what everyone wanted to see, but it confused us a bit, trying to force it for him.”
It now remains to return to victory this Wednesday, still on the OKC floor!
Damian Lillard, moved but disappointed
| Damian Lillard | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2012-13 | ORP | 82 | 39 | 42.9 | 36.8 | 84.4 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 6.5 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 3.0 | 0.2 | 19.1 |
| 2013-14 | ORP | 82 | 36 | 42.4 | 39.4 | 87.1 | 0.4 | 3.1 | 3.5 | 5.6 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 0.3 | 20.7 |
| 2014-15 | ORP | 82 | 36 | 43.4 | 34.3 | 86.4 | 0.6 | 4.0 | 4.6 | 6.2 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 2.7 | 0.3 | 21.0 |
| 2015-16 | ORP | 75 | 36 | 41.9 | 37.5 | 89.2 | 0.6 | 3.4 | 4.0 | 6.8 | 2.2 | 0.9 | 3.2 | 0.4 | 25.1 |
| 2016-17 | ORP | 75 | 36 | 44.4 | 37.0 | 89.5 | 0.6 | 4.3 | 4.9 | 5.9 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 0.3 | 27.0 |
| 2017-18 | ORP | 73 | 37 | 43.9 | 36.1 | 91.6 | 0.9 | 3.6 | 4.5 | 6.6 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 2.8 | 0.4 | 26.9 |
| 2018-19 | ORP | 80 | 36 | 44.4 | 36.9 | 91.2 | 0.9 | 3.8 | 4.6 | 6.9 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 2.7 | 0.4 | 25.8 |
| 2019-20 | ORP | 66 | 38 | 46.3 | 40.1 | 88.8 | 0.5 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 8.0 | 1.7 | 1.1 | 2.9 | 0.3 | 30.0 |
| 2020-21 | ORP | 67 | 36 | 45.1 | 39.1 | 92.8 | 0.5 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 7.5 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 3.0 | 0.3 | 28.8 |
| 2021-22 | ORP | 29 | 36 | 40.2 | 32.4 | 87.8 | 0.5 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 7.3 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 0.4 | 24.0 |
| 2022-23 | ORP | 18 | 34 | 45.1 | 39.8 | 89.4 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 3.8 | 7.1 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 3.6 | 0.2 | 28.3 |
| Total | 729 | 36 | 43.7 | 37.3 | 89.3 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 6.7 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 24.7 | |
