NBA scores 2017: Damian Lillard’s 49 points leads surging Blazers into playoff race

Portland started so poorly, and now the Blazers are only a game behind Denver in the playoff picture.

Mar 20, 2017, 12:00 PM UTC

Damian Lillard sank a field goal three minutes into the game. Curling around a screen with Goran Dragic pursuing him from behind, Lillard saw Hassan Whiteside on his heels ahead of him and pulled up for a smooth 18-foot jump shot.

Those were his first two points. He scored 47 more before the night was over.

For Lillard, it was more of the same. Since the All-Star break, where Lillard was “snubbed” once again by coaches and missed the game, Lillard is averaging 31.2 points on 49 percent shooting from the field and 44 percent on shots behind the three-point arc.

His presence is leading Portland on one final playoff push, where he has the Blazers sitting just a game back of Denver for the No. 8 seed in the West. Both teams have picked up the level of their production, but Portland has won its last three while Denver lost to Houston and has to play the Rockets again on Monday, this time on the road.

All that is to say that the Blazers can’t be ruled out of the playoffs just yet — not sitting right there.

Portland has had a weird season, going from a No. 5 seed last playoffs that won several games over .500 to currently the No. 9 seed while it struggles in the season’s final month. The attempt to bring everyone back and hope they improve hasn’t worked, but the Blazers stole Jusuf Nurkic at the deadline from Denver — where he clearly wasn’t going to work out — and is giving the team the spark plug it needs.

Whether a backcourt combination with Lillard and C.J. McCollum is the future has to be the biggest question for Portland this summer. The two provide flair and excitement, but their games overlap a bit and there isn’t much defense happening at all. McCollum could certainly earn the Blazers a great haul if they tried to trade him, and he looks like the odd man out when Lillard rattles off a performance like this.

The team could keep them together, too, but it raises the question of how high its ceiling is as currently constructed. Portland can play better, but the Western Conference isn’t usually this bad either.

As for Lillard, everyone knows he thrives when he feels like he has been slighted. Should Lillard have actually gone to the All-Star game over the West guards? Probably not. But that isn’t as important for Lillard. What is important is that he figures out how to prove his doubters wrong yet again.

Kyrie Irving and D’Angelo Russell dueled Los Angeles

Cleveland took the win as Irving dropped 46 points, surely fueled by finding out Shaquille O’Neal is also a Flat Earther. But D’Angelo Russell set his own career high with 40 points, helping the Lakers keep up until they finally fell 125-120. (For what it’s worth, LeBron James dropped 34 points himself.)