Damian Lillard’s 61 points, reviewed

Every superstar has their night, but something’s better about a game when Damian Lillard explodes. That’s partly because the city of Portland, starved of pro sports teams, is obsessed with its best NBA player.

Lillard has always been loyal to the franchise, even in the Blazers’ present-day lows, and has been one of the game’s most impressive scorers since his debut. There’s an adrenaline rush as Dame Time is activated and off-balance side-step prayers are answered, followed by a point to the 6’2 guard’s wrist. His 61-point game to beat the Warriors was one of those nights.

The Trail Blazers stink, and it’s nobody’s fault in particular. Zach Collins has been sidelined for most of the year, Jusuf Nurkic has been out the entire year, Rodney Hood tore his Achilles in December, and, on this night, C.J. McCollum was out too. Lillard, alongside 35-year-old Carmelo Anthony, Hassan Whiteside and kids (Anfernee Simons perpetually looks like he’s about to miss curfew), had to be otherworldly, even to beat the zombie Golden State Warriors. So, of course, he was.

Lillard’s 61 points set a franchise record, as did his 11 made threes, and his performance was just barely enough to squeak by the league-worst Warriors in overtime, 129-124. That’s how hurt Portland is. Lillard was efficient as hell too, draining 55 percent of his 20 three-point attempts, and making 17 of his 37 shots, not including his perfect 16-of-16 at the free-throw line. You can count the stars who could’ve won this game for Portland on one hand.

The 29-year-old is having one of the best years of his career, and it’s all for little. The win brought the Blazers up to No. 10 in the West, two games behind the Grizzlies for the No. 8 spot, and a distant 6.5 games from the seventh spot. Barring collapse or a midseason Thunder tank, there’s virtually only one postseason spot to fight for, and the prize for snagging it likely is a date with LeBron James’ Lakers.

But Lillard keeps chugging. Forty-five games into Portland’s season, he’s played in 43 of them. His competitive fire never wanes, and illuminates bright enough to get us all to give a damn about a late-night game against these Warriors in January. Lillard isn’t built like any other.

There are three major categories to Lillard’s madness. The first includes “basic” shots that aren’t really basic, but to Lillard they are. We’re talking about layups off the dribble and set three-point shots from a normal three-point distance. The second tier includes the “Dame” shots. These are the shots only superstars make from a freakish distance or following a mesmerizing series of dribble moves. And then, there’s the “WTF” shots. We’ll get to that.

Lillard scored 20 points worth of the common man’s buckets, including four threes. Here they are, sorted from layups to long twos (we’ll forgive you Dame) to threes.

Lillard made seven shots that can be considered Dame-level exclusive shots, five of which were threes. These are the finishes he made when he had to take over. Here they are from trap-splitting dribbles to off-balance runners to deep threes.

There were two shots that were just off-the-charts entirely, and both were from distance.

First, let’s look at this impossible pull-up three from multiple feet behind the three-point line with 17 seconds left on the clock in the second quarter. Who on Earth does this? Who on Earth makes this?

And then, there was this step-back with a hand directly in his grill with the game on the line. If this shot doesn’t go down, Portland loses in regulation. But Lillard’s able to create his own shot, and regain balance as he squares his hips mid-air. This is peak WTF.

There’s a reason he’s one of six players in NBA history to have more than one 60-point game for his career.