Paul George just got sent home by me last year in the playoffs."Īn 88.9% career free throw shooter, Lillard stepped to the line with 18.6 seconds left and the Blazers down one. We live with that."įor the series, Lillard was 8-of-12 from 30-plus feet. That story won't be told that it was a bad shot. George, now a part of an iconic scene in NBA history, had something to say following the game about the shot. "There's been a lot of back and forth, a lot of talk and all this stuff, and that was the last word." When we win those four games, there's not going to be nothing to talk about. We was like, 'OK, what we want to do is win four games. They was out there doing all these celebrations and doing all this stuff. "After Game 3, Dennis Schroder was out there pointing to his wrist. Throughout the series, the trash talk intensified, with Dennis Schroder mimicking Lillard's signature wrist-tapping gesture during Game 3. Westbrook loves to chirp, mock and gesture, and he would do it often against Lillard, with his rock-the-baby routine after scoring on post-ups. There has always been an intense rivalry between Lillard and Russell Westbrook - fierce divisional competitors who guard each other. You have to understand why Lillard waved in the first place. Lillard simply waved to the Thunder bench. The horn sounded as the ball dropped through the net, sending the Moda Center into mayhem and the Thunder home in five games. But it hung in the rafters for what felt like five minutes, and as time goes on, a foot or two gets added by the year. Officially, it was listed as a 37-footer. The ball left Lillard's hand with 1.5 seconds on the clock. George could see it coming as Lillard rocked back into his shooting motion. With three seconds left, he took another half step toward Lillard, who used a hard escape dribble and hopped to his right, clearing a glimpse of space between him and George. George glanced at the clock at the other end of the floor. George settled into a low defensive stance with five seconds left as Lillard crossed the ball back and forth, right to left, left to right. The other eight players spaced out wide, leaving Lillard and George on an island, one-on-one. George closed the gap as Lillard circled out, letting the clock tick. Keenly aware of this, George was on Lillard the moment he crossed half court. With Portland banged up and without center Jusuf Nurkic, who had suffered a broken leg a few weeks earlier, the Thunder were favored, but Lillard had been scorching them throughout the series, particularly with 30-foot missiles from the logos. It was April 2019, in the opening round of the playoffs, with George's Thunder taking on the Blazers and down 3-1 in the series. "I don't care what anybody says, that's a bad shot."Īs Lillard crossed half court at a jog, George picked up him, some 45 feet from the basket. With the Portland Trail Blazers and LA Clippers set to match up on Wednesday for the first time this season, you might be wondering: How did it get to this point? George purportedly reached out to Lillard to try to clear the air, but the strife was already set. In the bubble in Orlando, Florida, it reached its crescendo, to the point of family members reportedly getting involved. It has everything an NBA dispute needs - on-court trash talk, antics and social media back-and-forth. Damian Lillard seemed to be an unlikely rivalry - at least one that seemingly came out of nowhere.īut with one wave goodbye three seasons ago, the George-Lillard conflict was born.
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