Lillard never punched a guy right in the nose to motivate them (as far as we know). But, at his absolute best, maybe he would!
When Dame was hurt, he put up 31 ppg. Shooting 50% from the field. 4.6 apg, 4.2 rpg all more than season average with Dame. He did fine as the complete main focus
None of those teams doubled him or tried to deny him the ball and make him really work hard to get open. He was single covered and it wasn't' even by good defenders in the most part. Klay wasn't covering him most of the GS game as we got destroyed, Kawhi wasn't on him vs SA for pretty much the same reason and then we played Min/Sac/LA/Toronto, Its not surprising CJ put up those numbers in a situation like that. Edit - Forgot Dame was back for the DET game.
I think Dame is the better player when he is healthy and he is "on". But, Dame doesn't seem to know when he isn't on and probably plays through injuries more that he should. So, he ends up becoming very inefficient in almost every aspect of the game. CJ seems to know when it isn't his night and defers. Also, CJ has shown a huge pair late in quarters when he gets the shot.