PORTLAND, Ore. — Damian Lillard averaged 52.7 points per game last week, so it wasn't surprising when he was named the NBA's Western Conference Player of the Week.
Lillard's stats were impressive across the board. He averaged 9.3 assists, 7.3 rebounds and shot 53.4% from the field, 57.4% from the 3-point line and 94.9% from the free-throw line. The Blazers won two of their three games.
The Blazers' All-NBA guard scored 61 points, a franchise record, in an overtime win against the Warriors. He followed that with 47 points in a loss to the Mavericks and scored 50 in Sunday's win against the Pacers.
"He’s in a great rhythm, I mean that’s an understatement," Blazers head coach Terry Stotts said after Sunday's game. "The ball’s coming off his hands great on his threes, he’s managing the game, its easy to obviously look at his scoring, but tonight I thought the decision making, finding people, he’s in a really great groove."
It was the first time in Blazers history that a player scored 40 points or more in three consecutive games. He also made at least eight 3-pointers in three consecutive games, only the second player in NBA history to accomplish that feat. Stephen Curry was the other.
Lillard leads the NBA in scoring in the month of January, averaging 32.8 points per game. After Sunday's game, Lillard said his focus isn't on his stats. With the Blazers in the middle of a challenging stretch in their schedule — six of the team's next seven games are against winning teams — Lillard said he's focused on winning games.
"[It's] just a mentality, just trying to go out there, make sure that I do my job to give our team the best chance to win games, especially in the situation that we’re in where we've got to start pulling more of these games out," Lillard said. "I think a lot of these playoff teams coming up on our schedule, against good teams – the more we can pull these games out, our confidence will keep picking up, and going into the games where it's teams that are like middle of the pack like us, fighting for the playoff spots like us, we'll go into those games feeling like we should win them, playing like we should win them."
Jared Cowley writes about the Trail Blazers and other topics for KGW.com and is the co-host of KGW's 3-on-3 Blazers podcast. Have questions or comments for the 3-on-3 Blazers team? Email them here.
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