Like all great warriors, he studies and quotes Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. And he always seems to be the calmest and most measured man on the court or in the room. Damian Lillard, you see, is built for these pressure-packed playoff moments, both those he’s already experienced and those to come. His legend grows with each and every scintillating moment he provides for the Portland Trail Blazers during this postseason run. (SEE: The 37-footer that ended the Oklahoma City Thunder season.) So to say Lillard is eager to keep it going against the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals would be an understatement of epic proportions. Lillard was born for this, relishes the white-hot spotlight the playoffs provides and is just getting started in his attempt to rewrite this current Blazers crew’s playoff legacy. That might explain his mild surprise at the reaction of folks in the Moda Center and bars around the city after his step-back dagger to finish off the Thunder. The wild celebration caught him off guard, mostly because he expected to come through in the clutch even if no one else did. “What if we win the second round? What if we go to the Western Conference finals?,” Lillard said of his focus after digesting the reaction. “How are they going to react then?’ That was my mentality.” Being swept out of the playoffs in your two previous postseason appearances has a way of hardening the heart of a true competitor like Lillard, whose entire NBA career to this point has been the personification of outperforming expectations. A trying season that began with the Blazers dealing with the death of owner Paul Allen culminated with the loss of starting center Jusuf Nurkic being lost for the postseason with a compound fracture of his left leg. Another early exit for the Blazers, however painful, would have been understood given the circumstances. Lillard wasn’t having it. Not at this stage of his career. Not with the clock ticking on his chance to compete at the highest level in his prime. And certainly not with a path to the conference finals — the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are in the conference semifinal on the other side of the bracket — in plain sight. A Nuggets team believing in its own destiny stands in the way, of course. But for Lillard, as he stated repeatedly during the Thunder series, it’s not about the other team. It’s about the Blazers, the guys in red and black, and the Blazers only. If they do what they’re supposed to do, the rest will fall into place accordingly. He’s preached it non-stop to his guys from the start, leading in words, deeds and spirit. And they are clearly ready to follow him wherever he takes them. “I don’t think anybody in here is satisfied,” said Blazers swingman Moe Harkless. “We’re happy that we were able to take care of business in the first round, but we’re not satisfied. We know that we’ve got more work to do. We’re capable of doing more things this postseason.” I just copied and pasted the article. I like Moe's statement at the end
How will we react if they go to the conference finals, nba finals, or somehow win an NBA title? I think there will be a go fund me created to build a statue of Damian to put on water front, a ballot measure to officially re-name the city Damianland and the man will be the first player to ever have his jersey retired WHILE he's still an active player.
Close but small potatoes. You missed the grand finally of carving mount hood into his face and calling it king Lillard mountain.
People on this board already are way overconfident after a 37 foot shop that clinched a series. There are some that are even predicting winning both games on the road to start the series against Denver. Crazy talk. If the Blazers somehow make a series out of round two we should all be very happy about that. No Nurk. No Kanter. Doesn't seem very realistic to me.
I don't think people are being too overconfident (maybe I'm just not reading many of the threads). Personally, I just think they'll have a good series, but not win. Although, I have learned that it's not always smart to undersell Damian.
The question is, what criteria do we use to have King Lillard Mountain erupt? Game related, time related, whenever we feel like we are in a state emergency and need a boost?
I love that the Blazers are still playing and getting to the 2nd round. For all you Free Agent out there, watch how we love our Blazers and you are welcome to team up with Dame to win it all.
