Damian Lillard has quietly been putting together a phenomenal season. The 60 points he put up on Wednesday night were anything but quiet.
Damian Lillard has had some monster scoring night but nothing like what he managed Wednesday against the Utah Jazz. Lillard put up 60 points, the fourth 60-point game of his career, but he did it on just 29 shots. Lillard finished 21-of-29 from the field, 12-of-15 from inside the arc, 9-of-15 from behind it and 9-of-10 from the line. His true shooting percentage for the game — 89.8 percent — was the best in NBA history for a 60-point game.
Lillard had every part of his offensive game working against the Jazz. He hit 8-of-14 pull-up 3s and added 23 points on 16 drives, making 9-of-10 off those drives and getting to the free-throw line three more times.
Lillard’s scoring was fairly evenly divided among defenders. According to the NBA’s matchup stats, he was defended by Mike Conley, Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson and Jarred Vanderbilt each for eight or more possessions and he scored in double figures against each of them.
Damian Lillard is having one of the best seasons of his career
This is the second game of the season with 50+ points for Lillard and pushed his scoring average to a career-high 30.1. He’s also averaging career-highs in 2-point percentage, true shooting percentage, free throw attempts per game and assist percentage. And he’s doing it all at the age of 32.
The Portland Trail Blazers are currently 23-25, 12th in the Western Conference. FiveThirtyEight gives them just a 29 percent chance of making the playoffs. If the Blazers miss the postseason it would be the second year in a row of missing out for Lillard, after a streak of eight consecutive playoff appearances.
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