Lillard drops a ‘simple’ 60 points in Blazers’ important win over Utah

Published 10:32 pm Wednesday, January 25, 2023

The crowd in the last three minutes of the Portland Trail Blazers (23-25) was on its feet as Damian Lillard fell one-point shy of a new career high in points with 60 in the 134-124 win over the Utah Jazz (25-26).

The start to the game looked quite a bit like the game against the Los Angeles Lakers for the Blazers. The first quarter was a dud with the Jazz going up 31-19 after the first frame.

Jusuf Nurkic struggled early to slow down rookie Walker Kessler, but Drew Eubanks came in and provided a quick spark. But that wasn’t enough as the Blazers defense was out of sorts. So much so Gary Payton II at one point grabbed Anfernee Simons’ arm and pulled Simons toward where he should have been defensively.

To make matters worse, Josh Hart left the game early in the first with right hamstring tightness and was ruled out after going back into the locker room.

The second quarter changed the game though as Portland found itself on offense and put up 47 points in the frame and went into halftime up 66-64.

Damian Lillard found his stroke and hit five 3-pointers on his way to 17 in the quarter and to put up 26 at halftime. As a team, the Blazers hit 11 3-pointers in the second, including one from Nassir Little at the buzzer.

The issue was the defense didn’t get much better and Utah had 13 made 3-pointers at halftime to keep pace with Portland, who were able to make the comeback despite the Jazz staying hot.

Lillard stayed red-hot in the third quarter, scoring 24 more points to finish the third period at 50 points. He made three more 3-pointers and went 9 for 11 from the floor in the frame.

Meanwhile the Blazers locked down a bit more on defense, only giving up four 3-pointers and the combo of Nurkic and Eubanks did a better job down low to slow the Jazz big men. That gave Portland the 102-91 lead going into the fourth.

Nurkic exited the game though as well in the third quarter with what the team said is left calf soreness.

It didn’t change much though as Simons found a rhythm in the fourth quarter with 11 points. Lillard kept chugging though and scored 10 more to get to 60 points. He had a look with under one minute to go from deep that didn’t quite fall, putting him one point shy of tying his career high.

Toward the end, head coach Chauncey Billups said Lillard didn’t even realize he was at 60 points and one shy of the career mark, even though Billups was trying to run sets for him to shoot it.

“That was the only reason I kept him in the game,” Billups said. “That just speaks to who he is, he wasn’t even thinking about that … I know if that was me I would have been shooting from half (court).

“Obviously Dame was incredible and we enjoyed that. Y’all have gotten used to that over the years, I didn’t have a healthy Dame last year, but we got one this year and he’s put on some exceptional performances.”

Lillard and Simons combined for 76 points, but also put together 17 assists between them to dominate the game from the back court. Lillard had eight of those assists along with seven rebounds and three steals.

It was a special night for the Blazers’ most special player, reaching the 60-point mark for the fourth time in his career. And with a true shooting percentage at 89%, he bagged the most efficient 60-point performance in NBA history, a fact that was not lost on him in the post-game press conference.

Lillard won’t score 60 a night, but the offense still was whipping the ball around with 26 assists compared to 10 turnovers.

Portland now sits .5 a game back of Utah for 10th in the Western Conference standings and only 1.5 games back of Dallas sitting in the No. 6 spot.

Portland and Lillard look to stay hot with a 7 p.m. tip coming Saturday against visiting Toronto.

What they said

“That was incredible, man. You don’t get to see that very often to be that efficient. For a guy to score 60 points and only 10 free throws and made nine of them, you’re thinking this dude has a certain amount of threes, it was just incredible how efficient he was. But that’s not all he did. I mean shoot, he goes and gets seven rebounds, three steals, eight assists, he was all over the place. We did a really good job of understanding who was hot and keep riding that hot hand. It was just fun to watch greatness like that,” Billups said.

“We’re kind of in disbelief, but at this point it’s my fourth time seeing him score 60, so I don’t want to say it’s normal … When you see the way he prepares and the type of person he is, I wouldn’t say you necessarily expect 60 every night, but he deserves those kind of games, it’s warranted for the type of work he puts in. You just kind of sit back and enjoy it and marvel at his greatness,” Little said.

“I think any time you score 60 points it’s special, but I think this one I just felt like it came pretty simple. I thought I played the game as it should have been played. I knew it was a game that we needed to win, so I came out with the mentality to attack and be aggressive, but it wasn’t like I just came out on fire, it wasn’t one of those games. It was just different because it felt so simple,” Lillard said.

“If I come out and I’m just trying to get to it and go after them, there’s really no balance. I think it’s predictable and teams can address it sooner. I think over the course of the game, I think I played an honest game. Two people came, I kicked it ahead, I passed it ahead and hit the pocket or whatever the play was and I made that play. And in between those times I was making shots, and when I saw a gap I was attacking it. When you’re making the right play and you’re seeing what’s happening out there, I think it makes it hard for a team to commit to you as if they think you’re going to take every shot,” Lillard said on whether the rebounds and assists help fuel a 60-point game.

Standout stats

More Lillard: What made the 60 points even more impressive was Lillard doing it on 21 for 29 shooting. He only missed eight times and went 9 for 10 from the free throw line, making for an extremely efficient night on top of a career night in scoring.

Turnovers staying low: Much of the season has been about Portland’s offense needing to find a way to cut down on turning the ball over, and the last couple weeks has seen a pretty big shift. That was true again against Utah has Portland had four turnovers at halftime, and also turned the Jazz over nine times. Portland finished with 10 and forced 13 from Utah.

Still some work: Utah did stay in the game despite Lillard going off, and that was thanks to 20 made 3-pointers by the Jazz. If it weren’t for those, the game probably would have been over sooner. There’s plenty of work to be done defensively, but the offense has been rolling and getting stops when it’s needed to in the past two games at home.

Game grade: B

The defense on Utah’s 3-point shooting keeps it from being an A, but Lillard obviously deserves an A+ for his night. Not only did he score plenty, he attacked the Jazz in every way he could Wednesday night. That’s why you keep your future Hall of Famer on your team. He can win a few games by willing himself to these kinds of performances and keep a team staying afloat even when the outside noise might be saying the ship is sinking. The Blazers won’t sink as long as Lillard is on the floor. Portland needed this win to keep hopes alive in the Western Conference race and its all-star put on a career night. Not only that, but the guys around him played well in their support roles to get Lillard the ball and also stiffen up in the fourth to keep Utah at bay. It was a great night in Moda, and one Portland hopes carries over into the last two home games of this stretch to try and get back to .500.