Damian Lillard is reminding everyone that the 4th quarter is still ‘Dame Time’

Somewhere around the middle of the fourth quarter in a critical game for playoff positioning, it became clear that the Blazers needed more than Damian Lillard’s normal routine of greatness to force the Lakers to yield their double-digit lead. For most players, this is a tough ask. For Lillard, it has become so expected that it has a time designation: Dame Time.

In most cases, you can divide Lillard’s game in two: before and after Dame Time. The divide is apparent on both paper and even during the spectacle itself, because there’s a clear shift in the mood of the game. It goes from a competitive 5-on-5 affair to the opponent scrambling to contain Lillard.

Even in games like this one, where he was his normal brilliant self from the onset, it’s clear when Dame Time begins. He scored 19 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter, but there was a point when you knew he had decided to win the game for the Blazers and there was nothing the Lakers could do about it.

It wasn’t necessarily the floating layup over two defenders with seven and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. It also wasn’t the the pass to C.J. McCollum a few minutes later that cut the Lakers lead down to a manageable eight points.

Dame Time actually began the play after those two, when he dribbled leisurely up the court before speeding past Lonzo Ball and drawing a foul on Ivica Zubac. It only resulted in two free throws, but that was the moment Lillard decided to expose these young, scrappy Lakers to something extraordinary. It was a moment the Lakers anticipated, but couldn’t stop. When Lillard is in his zone, the defenders’ spread arms and desperate jumps may as well not be there at all.

That’s when the barrage began. On the next possession, Lillard calmly drained shot a three in Ball’s face. After an Isaiah Thomas miss, Lillard cooly glided up the court, put Julius Randle on skates, and made a stepback three on the left wing that tied the game.

The next play was both a heat-check and an assertion of dominance. It was the patented back-breaking three pointer that left the young Lakers team insecure and demoralized. You could feel the fight drain away from those in purple and gold as they watched the ball sail in the sky and land in the bottom of the net.

The pump-fake and three with Ball watching from the side, disappointed in himself for falling for the jig, was the perfect ending to the episode.

Dame Time works because of a supreme confidence that borders on arrogance,. Designating your own time in a game full of great athletes and talents is both an acknowledgement of power and a healthy level of disrespect for the opponents. No matter what, Damian Lillard cannot be stopped during Dame Time. That’s a powerful statement in a sport with so many huge egos.

The most fun part is Lillard’s mean mug during Dame Time. After dropping shots in their face, he condescends the other team’s players. He puffs his chest out, points to his own wrist, and reasserts that he owns the court. But as he does that, he maintains enough of a straight face to affirm that such greatness is routine for him. It’s business as usual, and not enough of a departure from the norm to celebrate more openly.

Ultimately, Dame Time is an extension of Lillard’s perpetual chip-on-the-shoulder attitude. He’s calling his own number to prove that he’s better than everyone else on the floor, yet is also shrugging it off because these things should be expected for a player of his caliber. He knows how good he is, even if others may not.

The Lakers were the victim of Lillard’s grand show this time, but they’re not the first and they won’t be the last. Dame Time is great entertainment in a bubble, but it’s nothing more than a reflection of the player at the center of it.