MEET DAMIAN LILLARD; THE NBA’S BEST POINT GUARD
@FussellRiley
Just when we thought the Portland Trail Blazers were dead in the water, Damian Lillard, the best point guard in the league, has dragged them to within a game and a half of the eight seed.
Even though the addition of Carmelo Anthony has been a boost for the Blazers, Lillard’s recent tear is the main reason for their undying relevancy. Lillard has lit up opposing defenses, scoring 361 points over his past eight games, an astonishing effort to lift his season’s average to 29.8 pts per game.
From Jan. 17th ‘til Feb. 2nd Damian Lillard has been averaging 41(!) points per game.
Dame had somewhat of a slow start to the season, and so did the rest of the team. The Blazers seemed a bit burnt out after an unusually long play off run for this team.
At the end of last season Damian Lillard had cemented himself as the second-best point guard in the league. In a head-to-head battle with Russell Westbrook in the playoffs, a series that felt like a battle for the title of second-best point guard, Dame outshone Westbrook. Even though Lillard didn’t play to his usual levels for the rest of the post-season, he had already burned it into every NBA fan’s mind that he was a force to be reckoned with.
Although everyone (including myself) is making a big deal of Lillard’s latest eight game stretch, he has been hooping all season.
He is averaging a career high in assists (7.9) while only averaging 2.8 turnovers per game. His efficiency is also up for this season averaging career highs in field goal percentage (46.3) and three-point percentage (39.7). His efficiency is a product of this man’s consistency on a nightly basis.
While some other point guards do have shouts to be the best Point Guard in the NBA, only Steph Curry has a legitimate argument.
Before Steph’s wrist injury he had only played four games and in those four games he didn’t look like himself. It’s excusable for him to have slow starts to seasons as he plays more games than anyone else seeing as he has been to the finals five years in a row.
The most glaring part of Curry’s slow start was his three-point shooting. In the four games he was only averaging 24.3% from deep. Maybe once he returns from injury he will be back to his regular self.
This season alone Damian Lillard has been by far the best Point Guard in the league.
At the start of the season Portland looked like their run of having less talent yet finishing high the West was over, but Lillard has dragged them to nearly back in the playoffs. With 32 games left for Dame Dolla’ to solidify his name as a Portland legend and take this teams back into the playoffs, he will need to continue his stunning form.
Dame’s productivity and efficiency matched with his constant heroics to save victories for Portland show that he is the best Point Guard in the league this season.
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Riley Fussell View All
Riley Fussell is a Journalism student at Ryerson University in Toronto Canada. Riley is originally from a small town on Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada, he is a passionate writer that takes interest in nearly all sports, but especially Basketball. Riley played Basketball all through high school and being from the west coast he was able to watch two games nearly every night. He is a big fan of the Toronto Raptors even though Damian Lillard is his favourite player to watch.
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