Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard ended Oklahoma City’s season on Tuesday night with one of the most emphatic buzzer-beaters you’ll ever see, as he casually launched a bomb from 37 feet to win the first round series 4-1. Lillard scored 34 points in the first half to carry the Blazers, and finished the game with 50. NBA players from across the league were watching the game, and many were in awe of Lillard’s performance in a close-out game. The Blazers, who rallied to extend their season after the loss of Jusuf Nurkic, will move on to play the winner of the Denver-San Antonio series. The Nuggets currently lead, 3-2. DAME DAMN!!!! — DWade (@DwyaneWade) April 24, 2019 NO HE DIDNT — Kevin Huerter (@KevinHuerter) April 24, 2019 WTF👀 — Buddy Love !!!! (@buddyhield) April 24, 2019 Not like that. 😂 — elfrid payton (@elfrid) April 24, 2019 Come on. Stop it. Go crazy @Dame_Lillard — Hippo Kaminsky III (@FSKPart3) April 24, 2019 Get tf outta here Dame Lillard 🤯 — Allonzo Trier (@ISO_ZO) April 24, 2019 Disbelief 😳 — Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) April 24, 2019 that was so nonchalant I’m offended — Sam Dekker (@dekker) April 24, 2019 Damn Dame! Wow! — Draymond Green (@Money23Green) April 24, 2019 Series clinching for a 50 ball.. bruh — Alex Caruso (@ACFresh21) April 24, 2019 As a hooper if that atmosphere, that battle between players, that back and forth trash talk all series, that GAME WINNER doesn’t motivate you…? I don’t know what will🤷🏽‍♂️ RESPECT&MOTIVATION😤💯 — Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) April 24, 2019 ⌚️ — LeBron James (@KingJames) April 24, 2019 A little late to the party but that was absolutely ridiculous @Dame_Lillard — Kevin Love (@kevinlove) April 24, 2019<doc-sep>What Damian Lillard did on Tuesday night wasn't just thrusting a dagger into the chests of Paul George, Russell Westbrook and every fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder. What the Portland Trail Blazers superstar did was submit his name into the conversation as a top-five player in the NBA -- the highest tier of superstar that this game has. Allow me to set the scene, in case you went to sleep before Lillard's heroics (understandable if you did; his work wasn't finished until 1 a.m. on the East Coast). Lillard had put his imprint on Game 5 of this first-round playoff series from the tip. The Thunder jumped out to a big first quarter lead with Paul George doing Paul George things. Dame paid it no mind. He paid no mind when his backcourt mate, CJ McCollum, got his third foul in that first half and Blazers head coach Terry Stotts took the keys to the team and handed them to Dame. He played every minute in that first half, that stolid look on his face making it seem like he'd just finished an hour of meditation, hammering away at that lead until, by halftime, the Blazers were up one, with Lillard accounting for 34 points on 6-of-9 3-point shooting. It was the most in a single half of a playoff game since Steve Nash dropped 35 in a half way back in 2005. This was no aberration -- Lillard had averaged 28.8 points per game in the first four games of this series, and if you had to pick a single MVP of the NBA's first-round playoff series, it would have been Lillard -- but this was getting a little bit silly. Lillard couldn't miss. In the second half, well … things got a little out of hand. Westbrook did some very un-Westbrook things, which is to say that he started making some jump shots (only "some" -- Westbrook ended up with a 29-point triple double, but he took 31 shots to get there). George channeled the version of himself that was a front-runner for MVP only two months ago, scoring 36 points on only 20 shots. Jerami Grant was a solid presence at the rim and at the 3-point line, and Dennis Schroder got in on the party too, and soon the nine-point lead the Blazers were nursing late in the third quarter became a 15-point Thunder lead halfway through the fourth. Over the span of fewer than eight minutes, the Thunder had gone on a 30-6 run. It seemed like the series was heading back to Oklahoma City for a Game 6. Then: Dame. Or, at first, Dame's sidekick. McCollum took ownership of the game in the fourth quarter, making four buckets in six minutes to tie the game with under a minute left. After George and Dame exchanged buckets, the floor cleared out for Russell Westbrook, and the entire arena knew what he was going to do as the clock ticked down: Drive to the rim, and put up a reckless shot. He did, and he missed. Then came Dame's hero moment. He's had one of these before. You remember it: Game 6 against the Houston Rockets in 2014's first round. The Blazers down one, 0.9 seconds left on the clock. He sprinted toward the inbounder, who got him the ball. Lillard turned, shot, drained it. And here he was Tuesday night, bringing the ball up the court, with Paul George, the best perimeter defender in the NBA, on him like a hawk. Preternaturally calm, as if this were a November game instead of an emotion-filled playoff game, Dame dribbled past half-court. Doing as only one player in the NBA -- Stephen Curry -- has both the guts and the skills to do, Lillard, with George giving him just enough room, pulled up from the logo. George jumped, hand in Lillard's mug, but it was too late, and he'd given Lillard too much space. It was a 37-foot 3-pointer for the game, and for the series. The buzzer sounded just as the ball went through the hoop. It was an assassin moment from perhaps the game's best clutch scorer. Who knows how far these Blazers will go? It feels like they have a relatively clear path to the Western Conference finals, whether that's through the San Antonio Spurs or the Denver Nuggets. The Blazers will be favored in that series regardless of opponent, I imagine. Then they would have to face either the Golden State Warriors or the Houston Rockets. Yikes. But no matter what happens for the rest of these playoffs, Tuesday's performance served as a reminder that Lillard isn't just an All-Star, or an All-NBA player. He's that rare type of superstar who can take over a game and a series. He's not Stephen Curry -- nobody on this earth is Stephen Curry -- but Damian Lillard is the closest that humanity has come to producing a second version of Stephen Curry. I know the question will be that, if Lillard is a top-five player, who does he knock out? Truth is, I don't know. The NBA is loaded with superstars like never before. Is LeBron a top-five player still, even after the disastrous year he had in Los Angeles, the disinterest in defense and the effects of age? Would you rank Lillard higher than Anthony Davis, considering Davis has only twice played more than 68 games and Lillard has missed a total of 25 games in his seven-year NBA career? Would you rather have Lillard or James Harden on your team? A lot of this comes down to a matter of taste. Right now, my top five would have, in some order: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, LeBron James and … Damian Lillard. You can disagree. But if you're not considering Lillard as one of your final cuts -- as a serious part of the top-five player conversation -- well then I'm guessing you didn't only fall asleep for Tuesday night's game. I'm guessing you've fallen asleep for vast chunks of the past two NBA seasons. Time to wake back up.<doc-sep>
Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on Flipboard (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Damian Lillard is the best Portland Trail Blazers player of all time. We’ve established that, it’s time to move on. Lillard hit yet another game-winning, series-ending shot in the playoffs on Tuesday night as the Blazers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 at Moda Center, 118-115. Lillard hit a step-back 37-foot 3-point shot over Paul George to win the series at the buzzer. It was reminiscent of the shot Lillard hit in 2014 over Chandler Parsons to beat the Houston Rockets and send Portland to the second round. There have been five walk-off, series-winning buzzer beaters in NBA history. Damian Lillard is the only player with multiples. — Eric Griffith (@EricG_NBA) April 24, 2019 Of course the league was watching as the game went down this track too late into the night on the West coast, and early in the morning on the East. After Lillard hit the shot, NBA Twitter left into action. NBA players who were awake reacted as well, including Parsons, who was cavalier about the whole thing. "I was just waving goodbye to them." Dame discusses his celebration after he helped the @trailblazers win the series.#NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/HSANVi7poJ — NBA TV (@NBATV) April 24, 2019 A buddy just sent me this video he shot of .. THE SHOT #RipCity pic.twitter.com/gEJ2ueEOLR — Mike Benner (@MikeBennerKGW) April 24, 2019 Nurkic with the "Fuck It" on live TV pic.twitter.com/gT2abnFnX7 — The Render (@TheRenderNBA) April 24, 2019 Jusuf Nurkic said he decided to leave his house and come to the Moda Center with 3 minutes left in the 3rd Q. “I knew it was gonna make a difference,” he said. — Joe Freeman (@BlazerFreeman) April 24, 2019 happens to the best of us — Chandler Parsons (@ChandlerParsons) April 24, 2019 God DAME!!! — Allen Iverson (@alleniverson) April 24, 2019 @Dame_Lillard has absolutely caught the Holy Ghost! — Channing Frye (@channingfrye) April 24, 2019 A little late to the party but that was absolutely ridiculous @Dame_Lillard — Kevin Love (@kevinlove) April 24, 2019 ⌚️ — LeBron James (@KingJames) April 24, 2019 That dude is crazy. What a shoot by Dame. And I didn’t get the assist on that one 🤷🏾‍♂… — Nicolas Batum (@nicolas88batum) April 24, 2019 That might’ve been the coldest buzzer beater I’ve seen — Trevor Booker (@35_Fitz) April 24, 2019 DAME DAMN!!!! — DWade (@DwyaneWade) April 24, 2019 3 ball — David West (@D_West30) April 24, 2019 BRUHHHH a 50 piece and closing the series like that???? 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️ — Garrett Temple (@GTemp17) April 24, 2019 That was cold blooded…. Respect ✊🏾 — Marreese Speights (@Mospeights16) April 24, 2019 Na Dame!!! 😂😂😂😂 — Lou Williams (@TeamLou23) April 24, 2019 Bro that might be the COLDEST game winner I’ve ever seen 👀👀👀 Dame is an absolute MONSTER! — Anthony Tolliver (@ATolliver44) April 24, 2019 Wow 😲 — Tyson Chandler (@tysonchandler) April 24, 2019 "First off, I would definitely like to thank the Knicks for waiving me." Enes Kanter got jokes 😆 pic.twitter.com/DfQJs21vb7 — NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 24, 2019 CAN play Kanter — Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) April 24, 2019 What an incredible night in the NBA.