Lillard Ready For Game 2 After A Few Days Of Reflection

MEMPHIS – Having extra days off between games, as is usually the case during the first four games of a first round playoff series, is typically a good thing. That’s especially true for a Trail Blazers, a team hoping to get their starting shooting guard back in the lineup for Game 2 versus the Grizzlies Wednesday night in Memphis.

But having two days off in between the first and second games of the series has been a bit difficult for some, particularly for those who didn’t play very well in Portland’s 100-86 Game 1 loss. And considering the result, the vast majority of the team find themselves in that group, including Damian Lillard, who said he hasn’t done much but consider all the mistakes he made Sunday night.

“I didn’t think I played well,” said Lillard. “That’s pretty much all I’ve been thinking about the last few days, basically running every play back through my head, what I could have did better, things like that.”

A healthy dose of self-assessment can be a good thing, especially if the goal is self-improvement. But there’s a fine line between being honest with yourself and beating yourself up, a line that is probably easier to cross sitting in a hotel room in Memphis for two days breaking down every miscue, every stroke of bad luck from a 5-of-21 shooting night.

“After the first game — I’m always hard on myself — but after that game, it being the first playoff game, I was pretty hard on myself,” said Lillard. “I’m pretty sure that’s what everyone on our team has been thinking about since the game. But I think right now, we’ve got to take what we can from the film and from what we thought of our performance and just try to come out next game and be better.”

And while there was probably at least some small level of shaming involved in Lillard’s recounting of his Game 1 performance, the 6-3 point guard said he’s ready to put Sunday’s game behind him. He knows he’ll need to play better for the Trail Blazers to have a chance of stealing homecourt advantage away from the Grizzlies before the series moves to Portland, but he’s not concerned that wanting to make up for Game 1 will result in putting too much pressure on himself come Game 2.

“I think, at this point, you take the negative and positive and you figure out what you need to do to be better,” said Lillard. “But I don’t think we need to be worried about pressing. I don’t think that’s something that should be in our minds. If anything it’s us wanting to win, we want to do well. I guess you could say we’ll be more on edge, but we don’t have a reason to press. I said it before, nothing is really expected of us. We need to just play free.”

And play again. In between reviewing film of his own performance, Lillard watched some of the other first round series, during which he realized, or at least remembered, that every game presents a new opportunity. Game 1 might have been one of the all-time lows in his professional career, but Game 2 nevertheless could just as easily join the list of highs.

“The emotions of an NBA playoff series, they switch each game,” said Lillard. “You saw Golden State pretty much blew out New Orleans in Game 1. In Game 2, with three minutes left, that game could go in any direction. So I think we just got to take what we can from it, negative and positive. I’m pretty sure the way our team is made up, we’ve run over every negative thing we did from top to bottom and we want to go out there and have a better performance, period.”


Casey Holdahl Beat Writer
Portland Trail Blazers

http://forwardcenter.net/lillard-ready-for-game-2-after-a-few-days-of-reflection/

 

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