Gotta give Blaze credit, he is still on the "Lillard is fools gold" bandwagon. No bandwagon jumping or admitting defeat graciously for him.
He was given the keys to the car on day 1. The entire organization has given him the green light to shoot. Of course, he's willing to take that shot. That is what he is being asked to do. It was actually the 5th such shot Lillard has taken this year (see games against Houston, Houston, Cleveland, and Charlotte) and he finally made it this time. I wasn't surprised or impressed. He's a great player and he has no other PG on the team challenging for his spot. There are no playoff expectations for the team and no one like Kobe to yell at him if he misses. It wasn't a pressure shot. Glad he made it.
Top story in today's SF Chronicle NBA wrap, with photo. Usually the Blazers game is the last one in the column and gets one sentence. PS, I don't want the #1 pick. Winning the lottery has not worked for the Blazers. And this year, honestly, would you rather have Davis, who has missed a bunch of games, or Dame? It's when we are all disappointed that things work great (with Roy and Aldridge, and now Lillard) and when we're all psyched and dancing in the streets it goes wrong (Exhibit A: Oden, Greg). Let the Lakers get the #1 pick for Phoenix, let Portland pick 4 or 6, or fuck, why not just make the damn playoffs?
And could you imagine this forum and the fan base if we had Anthony? We would claimed our curse is still going on.
Try changing "shot to take lead" to "shot to tie." The tying shot might have generated a foul and a game-winning free throw. http://bkref.com/tiny/4gh6v
Damian Lillard shows why he's this year's most versatile rookie, as he scores and plucks fellow rookie Anthony Davis' unibrow at the same time. BNM
Cool, let's look: 1/6/2007 - tied the game, went to OT, Zach Randolph hits the clinching FTs to put us up 5 with 1.7 seconds to go http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/pbp/200701060SAC.html#q4 Analysis: Clutch as fuck, but not a game winner. 2/2/2007 - tied the game, and we went to OT, but we lost. http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/pbp/200702020DEN.html#q4 Analysis: Clutch as hell to force OT, but we couldn't hold it. 2/9/2007 - tied the game, but Okafur his a FT after it. Z-Bo his a FT to put the game into OT. http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/pbp/200702090CHA.html#q4 Analysis: Clutch as fuck once again, but not at the end of the game. 3/23/2007 - Roy ties the game, but then misses the go-ahead shot as time actually expired to put the game away. Went to OT, where his FT's with 4 seconds to go put the game out of reach. http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/pbp/200703230ATL.html#q4 Analysis: Pretty clutch, but not a game winner; actually missed the game winner. Clutch-ass FT's though! Overall, Roy showed he was fucking clutch, but didn't win a game with a made field goal. Sticky distinction, but it matters to some folks.
We vaguely remember those exciting moments years later as rookie clutch shots. The details are forgotten. You might extend the search from 24 seconds to 1 minute. Sometimes that's the last meaningful made FG, followed by missed FGs, and made FTs from intentional fouls. But the victory shot happened way back, like with 50 seconds left.
How clutch is Lillard? Here's Lillard this year (3rd with .571 eFG%): http://bkref.com/tiny/maChk Here's Roy when he was at his best for clutch points (2009-10, 12th with .493 eFG%): http://bkref.com/tiny/qRXrr What's interesting as I went through the years (06/07 through 09/10) is that the player Lillard most closely matched in eFG% for clutch shots was Steve Nash, who was consistently 3rd or 4th with around a .600 eFG%.
God when was the last time the blazers even had a pg we could count on in the clutch? I can't even remember.
