Damian Lillard sets Blazers franchise record with 60 points in losing effort
Damian Lillard entered the NBA after four years in college. He won Rookie of the Year his first year. He earned All-Star honors his second year. He made All-NBA second team his fourth year, All-NBA first team his sixth year and reached his first conference finals in his seventh year.
The point guard has never stopped getting better throughout his career, and it’s beginning to look like that trend has continued.
Damian Lillard makes Blazers history, again
Lillard put his name in the Portland Trail Blazers history books yet again on Friday, breaking his own franchise record with 60 points while going 19-of-33 from the field (7-of-16 from deep, a perfect 15-of-15 on free throws) with five assists and only two turnovers.
One of the NBA’s best players simply went supernova.
Career-high. Franchise Record.
60 piece for @dame_lillard. 🎥 pic.twitter.com/h7FxlQc7Oy— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) November 9, 2019
Unfortunately, a season-long trend continued for the Blazers as Lillard didn’t have much help. C.J. McCollum and Hassan Whiteside combined for 18 points on 8-of-29 shooting, with second-year player Anfernee Simons the only other player to hit double-digits with 15 points (on 5-of-14 shooting).
The resulted in a 119-115 win by the Brooklyn Nets, whose point guards somehow outscored Lillard thanks to Kyrie Irving’s 33 points and Spencer Dinwiddie’s 34 points.
Despite Lillard’s 33.3 points and 6.9 assists per game so far this year, the Blazers are only 3-6 thanks to a buzzsaw of a schedule and a shortage of help for their superstar.
It was a bad night for NBA stars going off
Amazingly enough, Lillard wasn’t even the only West Coast point guard to drop more than 50 points and still see his team lose to a team led by a former No. 1 overall pick.
That honor was also bestowed on Golden State Warriors star D’Angelo Russell, who you might have heard isn’t playing with much of a supporting cast either. Together, the two guards became the first pair of players to both drop 50 points on the same night in a decade and a half.
D'Angelo Russell scored 52 PTS while Damian Lillard poured in 60 PTS in tonight's action. This is the first time two players scored 50+ points on the same night since Vince Carter and Allen Iverson on Dec. 23, 2005. pic.twitter.com/IV9IO8Di7S
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) November 9, 2019
Like Lillard, Russell’s Warriors also lost. In this case, it was Andrew Wiggins and his 40 points in an overtime 125-119 win for the Minnesota Timberwolves. It really wasn’t a good night for good performances.
These stat lines all took L's tonight 🤯
D-Lo: 52 PTS | 9 REB | 5 AST | 3 STL
Luka: 38 PTS | 14 REB | 10 AST
Trae: 30 PTS | 12 AST | 5 STL pic.twitter.com/9sJp8Q9JSm— Yahoo Sports NBA (@YahooSportsNBA) November 9, 2019
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