For his second game following returning from an injury that kept him off the court for seven games, Damian Lillard didn’t take long to find his rhythm. In a narrowly lost match once morest Denver (121-120), the leader nevertheless distinguished himself by his great individual performance.
If the Blazers therefore lost at home on the wire once morest the Nuggets, we cannot say that Dame did not do everything to change this scenario. Faced with a Nikola Jokic in almost triple-double and a Jamal Murray who certainly had to follow a course in clutchitude supervised by Isaiah Thomasthe former ROY (40 points, 12 assists, 12/22 shooting including 9/17 from his native California) will have survived in the middle of a rather disappointing team (only 6 points for Anfernee Simons) within which, in addition to Lillard therefore, only Jusuf Nurkic (21 points at 9/10 in shooting) will have more or less held his rank. If there is not (yet?) fire in the lake for current Chauncey Billups players eighth in the Western Conference with a record of thirteen wins for twelve losses, we still hope on the Oregon side that DOLLA, who has already missed twelve games this season, will now be able to continue. Indeed, the balance sheet of the heirs of Bonzi Wells without (5-7) and with (8-5) their star leader demonstrates well (if it is really necessary) the importance of the sixfold All-Star within the Portland roster. Even at our very small level, we do imagine, without a doubt, that having a leader capable of achieving MVP-caliber seasons and leading his people to the podium of his Conference must be practical enough to be good at the orange ball.
Failing to have won last night once morest a direct competitor in the race for the Playoffs, the Blazers can at least console themselves by saying that their superstar is back. And no, it’s not just “already taken”.