If Lillard was a Los Angeles Laker or a Boston Celtic, he’d be considered the best or second-best guard of his generation. Dame Lillard made NBA history in the Trail Blazers 131-114 blowout win over the Rockets as he had a career-high 71 PTS, showing how great he truly is.
71 points in a single game! That’s simply incredible!
In the 76-year history of the league, there have only been eight players (Wilt Chamberlin, Kobe Bryant, David Thompson, David Robinson, Elgin Baylor, Donovan Mitchell, Devin Booker, and now Damian Lillard) who have been able to eclipse the 70-point mark in a single game. Just eight guys.
To be mentioned alongside the likes of Wilt Chamberlin, Kobe Bryant, Elgin Baylor, David Thompson, and David Robinson for anything basketball related is an honor in itself, while having the distinction of being in the 0.0018% quartile of all NBA players for points scored in a single game is a cherry on top.
Not even Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabhar, and even the great Michael Jordan himself (though he did get close with 69 PTS) were able to score 70 against a team.
It takes a tremendous amount of skill, determination, stamina, and effort to be able to dominate a team so thoroughly, which is why Dame Lillard should be considered one of the Top-3 greatest PGs of his generation.
People like Steph Curry (who is the best PG of the generation), James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Russell Westbrook, John Wall, Chris Paul, etc. will usually get the praise and accolades of being “the best PG” of the 2010’s generation by the media, but either discredit Lillard for “staying in Portland” or completely omit him all together from the discussion.
Thankfully, this issue is less prevalent in today’s NBA media ring than it was 5-10 years ago, yet that still shouldn’t negate the fact that Lillard has constantly performed at an extremely elite level for a team that rarely gave him the help he needed to go far in the playoffs.
In the 11 years since Lillard came into the league, he’s only had a sole all-star castmate to team up with in LaMarcus Aldridge for the 2012/13 and 2014/15 seasons. Reversely, aside from John Wall, each one of the PGs I mentioned above had at least two all-stars play with them for at least three seasons, while some of them (Curry, Westbrook, Harden, Irving, Paul) had past or soon-to-be MVP winners as their teammates.
Obviously, Lillard could never even dream about such help from a teammate.
Back to the game, I can’t really say that last night’s game will go down as an all-time classic as the Trail Blazers were playing against the lowly Houston Rockets. Sure, no one could expect Lillard to go for 71 PTS on the 15th seeded Rockets, but 35-40 would have been a safe bet.
I’m still not too sure this performance or anything else Lillard does this season for the Trail Blazers (11th) will be able to sneak into the Play-In Round as the teams currently ahead of them, the New Orleans Pelicans (10th), the Minnesota Timberwolves (9th), (Utah Jazz 8th), and the Golden State Warriors (7th), all have better supporting casts than Portland.
Plus, with the Lakers (12th) coming back from being down 27 PTS against the Dallas Mavericks (6th) and showing how good that team can be with actual 3-point shooters and defenders, the Trail Blazers will be hard pressed to hold their current half-game lead over LA.
But that worrying fact shouldn’t take away from the brilliance of Damian Lillard and his historic 71-point performance.
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