OKLAHOMA CITY – With 5 minutes and 28 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, Damian Lillard hit two hard dribbles with his left hand, put his man on his hip and put the defender, Al Horford, upright.
It was a one-point game, leading the Oklahoma City Thunder, and as Lillard does, he pushed the eject button to take off and shoot Horford’s face, the kind of shot on which the “Dame Time” mythology is built.
The problem was, he was 1-in-9 from 3-point distance up to that point. It wasn’t a typical Lillard game, with the flurry of logo shots and dazzling edge finishes. He was short, he was on the left, he was on the right. And this one about Horford – this one was very short and left.
Lillard has been backing the battered Blazers behind these moments for the past month, carrying the burden of time on his shoulders as he tried young talent like Anfernee Simons, Gary Trent Jr. and Nassir Little. But the big spots, the crunch-time shots, are from Lillard.
But with the icy air in Oklahoma cooled to the point that the state was facing an energy emergency, with virtually every light in the arena turned off except the ones that lit the floor, Lillard was freezing. And not in the right way.
The Thunder, as they have often done this season, was demolished with their young players and lingered in the game long enough for energy and athletics to deplete an opponent. Hamidou Diallo jumped across the floor; Lu Dort made his way to the edge with snow plows. A 20-point lead at Blazer turned into a five-point deficit with four minutes to go. It was becoming a now-or-never point for Dame Time.
“There is concern,” Lillard admitted. He said he watched the scoreboard as the Blazers lead dropped to 93-84, hoping his team could hit two quick 3s, calm the Thunder’s run, and then take control for a easy landing.
“But I was like, ‘Man, this would be a tough loss for us. We played so well.’ But once I got back to court, I was just like… ”he said, pausing.
“I never think there is a game that I cannot control,” he said. When I’m out there I can feel how hard the defense is trying to stop me. When I see how alert and active they are trying to stop me, it just lets me know they are concerned about how well or how badly I hit the ball And to me it’s even more mental to me that even though they know I don’t like it, they still worry and I want to show them why they should be worried And why they’re still tense should be. “
0:52
Enes Kanter comments on Damian Lillard’s great play, saying he’s never seen anything like it.
His first late game 3 came at 4:11 a.m., while Dort flew past him on a fake pump. Lillard took a drool and let it drain quietly. The Thunder’s lead went back to second and it ended a 23-4 run that opened OKC’s fourth quarter. With the Thunder now on edge, he set Trent up for corner 3 on the next trip and the Blazers were back in charge.
The next possession, Lillard, worked to shake off Dort and force a switch. He tilted backward over Isaiah Roby in a quick release and hit the bottom of the net. A few assets later, Lillard had put Dort in isolation. As a stubborn defender who had worked tirelessly to pursue Lillard, Dort stuck to every shot, every deke, every fake. As the shot clock stopped, Lillard got behind his back and took a big step back to rock in a 3 with a little extra lean and a little extra bow due to the stellar defense. Didn’t matter – it was Dame Time. Two trips later, Lillard hit another for the official dagger to give the Blazers a fifth straight win, 115-104 over OKC.
Lillard started the match 1-of-10 from three-point distance. He finished 4-of-4. Just a standard 31-point game with seven rebounds and 10 assists – and one win.
“He’s like a cheat code – I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Enes Kanter. “And I’ve played with some great, great players. But I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s wild.”
The Dame Time mindset is one that has been well-recorded, with Lillard answering questions about it since his first famous clutch shot fell – in 2014 to eliminate the Houston Rockets. But he revealed on Tuesday that part of unlocking the mindset to embrace big moments is in his own personal thinking game with himself.
“I don’t know why,” he said, “I’m just doing it.”
2:24
Stephen A. Smith apologizes for overlooking Damian Lillard’s exceptional performance this season.
The attentiveness of defenders, the fear he hears in the voices of assistant coaches begging players to stay on him, they can serve as an injection of confidence for Lillard, even if the shot doesn’t land.
“It’s encouraging at times,” Lillard said. “Sometimes I fall short. Sometimes they do well enough or the shots don’t go in, but in those moments I tell myself that if they walk off the track, they might go back and say, ‘This is why we wanted you to do it, so it wouldn’t happen to us. “I want to do that to the other team.”
Lillard said he doesn’t remember exactly when he started playing those mind games with himself – maybe his second season, he guessed – and didn’t really have an explanation for how he mentally takes himself to that place to turn it on.
“It’s internal,” he said. ‘You just demand it. You just demand that something extra from yourself. Nothing comes out [Blazers head] trainer [Terry] Stotts, there’s nothing that comes from [NBA development coach] Phil Beckner, none of that. It’s just on the inside, I’m like, ‘I have to find a way.’ This is an opportunity to take off and grow big. “
At the end of the third quarter, Lillard hit his knees with Dort and took a longer time to walk it off. The Blazers fouled so he could have it checked on the bench, and even after getting the all-clear to return, Lillard watched as he rubbed intermittently and straightened the knee. It was a brief moment of fear for the Blazers, who have already faced a wave of exhaustion. That turnover has given some of their young players a chance to develop which could be beneficial for the team in the long run, but as last post season showed, without Lillard there is no Dame Time, which means there are no Blazers .
Therefore, he accepts and understands the responsibility he bears, especially without injured backcourt poet CJ McCollum. And even one night when it didn’t happen, Lillard’s inner voice kept talking to him, telling him there was a moment.
‘I told myself that and I often fall short. But it is real, ”he said. “I always talk to myself like that. You have to find a way. You have to get going. You shot the whole game badly, but this is a fresh start. I always talk to myself.”
Ice cold. The right way.