What’s wrong with Damian Lillard?

Damian Lillard, who will soon be named to the second-team All-NBA (and who had a really strong case for first-team) and could finish No. 5 in MVP voting, isn’t the reason the Portland Trail Blazers lost Game 2 to the Golden State Warriors on Thursday despite leading by 15 at the half. Lillard was, in fact, Portland’s leading scorer at 23 and when you account for how many of his shots came from long-distance (12 of his 16 attempts were threes), he wasn’t terribly inefficient on Thursday. He also had 10 assists to just two turnovers.

But there’s something missing, and it’s been missing since the beginning of the second round.

In the first round against the elite defensive Thunder, Lillard averaged 33 points on and effective field goal percentage of 57 percent. (Effective field goal percentage accounts for the improved value of a made three by adjusting field goal percentage accordingly.) Since then, against teams who haven’t been as consistent on defense this season (the Nuggets and Warriors), Lillard is averaging 24 points on an eFG of 47 percent.

Before Dame waved goodbye to Russell Westbrook and the Thunder, he was playing at an MVP level in the playoffs. Since then, he’s been “only” at an all-star level. That’s probably the difference between the Blazers challenging the Warriors and not.

So what’s up?

Well, the Nuggets and Warriors are much better overall than the Thunder. While OKC’s defense may be intimidating, their lackluster offense relieves some pressure for opponents. No such luck with Denver or Golden State. Lillard must also be feeling some effects of exhaustion. He played 80 games this season at almost 36 minutes per match, and he’s averaging 40 minutes in the playoffs. Heck, I’m still feeling the effects of that quadruple overtime game against Denver, and I participated as a viewer from the cozy confines of my bedroom. Dame was superb all year long, and Portland needed him to be. At some point, something has to give.

None of this is to say that Dame is having a bad postseason after the logo shot — he’s just come back down to Earth quite a bit, something the Blazers barely survived in Round 2 and don’t appear to be able to get past in the West finals. Of course, the Blazers wouldn’t be close to here without Dame. You can’t blame him because without him you would have been engaging in luck rituals this week instead of playing against the Warriors.

All the Blazers can really do is try to ascertain what happened in these last rounds and figure out a way to mitigate it in future seasons, whether that be through load management or finding one more punchy wing scorer.

Blazers 111, Warriors 114
Golden State leads series 2-0

Raptors at Bucks, 8:30, TNT
Milwaukee leads series 1-0

Sheesh, the Blazers really still almost won that game despite giving up their entire 15-point halftime lead in the third quarter. Kudos for the Blazers for fighting. The Warriors are just inevitable, even without Kevin Durant (who is now out through Game 4 at least — it kind of feels like he’s done for the season). Stephen Curry ... he’s really good! Draymond Green, too. What a team!

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