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Damian Lillard of the Portland Trail Blazers is currently preparing to play in the Tokyo Olympics for the US basketball team, despite rumors about him possibly leaving the Blazers remaining. The NBA superstar will play in the Olympics for the first time in his career, and he has mentioned that playing for the US in Tokyo would be "a great thing to add to my resume and my legacy."
The 31-year-old Lillard has had a tremendous NBA season that will surely send him to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame after he is done with basketball.
Beyond his duties with the US basketball team, Lillard might be coming off the best individual season of his extraordinary NBA career so far. On that note, let's try analyzing some of Lillard's impressive performances in his nine-year career. It is bound to be a tough pick due to his consistent levels of greatness in the sport.
Damian Lillard's greatest moments from his NBA career so far
Lillard, a six-time NBA All-Star, averaged 28.8 points and 7.5 assists per game during the 2020-21 NBA regular season before making a good postseason effort against the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs.
In this article, we will take a look at Damian Lillard's five-best moments in his NBA career so far.
Without further ado, let us start.
#5 NBA debut
After getting picked by the Portland Trail Blazers with the sixth pick of the 2012 NBA Draft out of Weber State, Damian Lillard made his official NBA debut against the LA Lakers on October 31st, 2012.
Of course, Kobe Bryant was on the other side of the ball, and Lillard made the most of his first NBA night to put up solid numbers. The 22-year-old rookie led his Portland Trail Blazers to a 116-106 win against Bryant and the LA Lakers with 23 points and 11 assists.
It was a great start to a year that ended with Damian Lillard taking Rookie of the Year honors over Anthony Davis and Bradley Beal.
#4 Breaking the all-time record for most threes made in a single postseason game
A six-time All-NBA player, Damian Lillard has definitely had an impressive NBA career that might only need him and his team to have a shot at the Larry O'Brien trophy at least once in an NBA Finals series.
Regardless, Lillard has been a top performer in the NBA Playoffs and he's been their clutch player for the Blazers quite often. Though he's had some difficult moments, the great ones will naturally stand out.
One of those stand-out performances came in Game 5 of the 2021 NBA Playoffs' first round against the Denver Nuggets and NBA MVP Nikola Jokic. Lillard put up a 55-point effort in the Blazers' loss, but the game went into double-overtime only because Lillard converted two game-tying three-pointers at the end of regulation and the first OT.
He made 12 three-pointers in the night, which established a new all-time record for most threes made in a single NBA Playoffs game.
#3 Damian Lillard putting his name and Wilt Chamberlain's on the same sentence in 2020
The 2019-20 NBA season was the best of Damian Lillard's career in terms of scoring average. The Portland Trail Blazers point guard put up an average of 30 points per game (66 appearances) on 46/40/88 shooting splits during the regular season.
On his way to averaging 30 points for the first and so far, the only time in his career, Lillard averaged over 50 points per game in the final three games of the regular season to put the Blazers in the NBA Playoffs.
Those three games included a 61-point night against the Dallas Mavericks, which was Lillard's third 60-point game of the 2019-20 NBA regular season, making him only the second player in NBA history to achieve that in a single season. The other player to do so was the extraordinary Wilt Chamberlain, so any diehard NBA fan can understand how big that is.
#2 Series-clinching shot at the buzzer against the Houston Rockets in the 2014 NBA Playoffs
In his second NBA season, Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers made it to the NBA Playoffs as the West's fifth seed. The Blazers met with the Houston Rockets in the first round and after LaMarcus Aldridge got extremely hot in the first few games of the series, it was Lillard who had the biggest moment of the duel.
The sophomore, who won the Rookie of the Year award in the 2012-13 NBA season, had the first of many clutch moments in his NBA Playoffs career in Game 6 of the fight against Houston in 2014.
Lillard averaged 25.5 points, six rebounds and six assists per game in the first NBA Playoffs series of his career, but the big moment came when he sealed the series with a buzzer-beating three-point shot.
#1 Game-winning, series-clinching three-pointer against the OKC Thunder in the 2019 NBA Playoffs
Damian Lillard willed the Portland Trail Blazers to third spot in the Western Conference after great regular-season performances. He averaged 26.9 points and 6.6 assists per game in the regular season, and the Blazers matched up against Russell Westbrook's OKC Thunder in the first round of the postseason.
In that first-round duel, Lillard averaged 33 points, four rebounds and six assists per game with 46/48/84 shooting splits.
Lillard was dominant throughout the encounter, but the biggest moment came in Game 5, when he hit an unbelievable three-pointer at the buzzer to end a postseason series with a game-winning triple once again.
Later on, Lillard guided the Blazers to the Western Conference Finals, but the Golden State Warriors handed them a sweep, guided by Stephen Curry.
Also read: 2021 NBA Free Agency: 5 best point guards teams should target in the off-season
