The basketball world just missed out on what could have been another epic Dame Time moment on Wednesday night as the Milwaukee Bucks took on the Portland Trail Blazers. Damian Lillard had the chance to win it for the Bucks in the dying seconds of what turned out to be a tightly contested battle between the two sides.
Unfortunately, Lillard did not even get a chance to put a shot up as Portland made sure to lock their former superstar down in that crucial possession.
The Blazers escaped with the victory, 119-116.
Milwaukee Bucks’ Damian Lillard Reacts to Not Taking Crucial Shot
You have to give the Blazers a lot of credit for their defense against Lillard during that key possession. They forced Dame to give the ball up, which led to Brook Lopez missing a great look from beyond the arc:
Dame had to pass, Brook took the three and came up short pic.twitter.com/dVOOvKgdhA
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) February 1, 2024
After the game, Lillard was asked to share his thoughts on the botched play. According to the 33-year-old, it was his decision to concede the crucial shot to Lopez:
“I thought I could’ve shot it,” Lillard said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I probably could have shot it and got it off, but when I was stepping back I felt them both coming. I for sure could’ve go the shot off, but if his man is front of me and my man is right there chasing me on the side, I just was aware that he had to be wide open, so I just made a pass back to him.”
‘He Just Missed It’
Lillard is one of the most clutch players this game has ever seen. This does not mean, however, that he needs to take every shot down the stretch. Being clutch also means making the right decision in the most important moments of the game. On this particular occasion, Dame knew that the right call was to give the ball up:
“I came back, I got the ball, I came off the screen,” Lillard recalled. “I looking to get downhill first because I didn’t want to just settle and I was able to get some space from Ayton and I kind of stepped back behind the three-point line. But my man was still chasing, and I knew he was going to try to get a rearview contest and maybe have a chance to block it. So I just welcomed it and I threw it back. And Brook was making that shot all night. When you get a quality shot from a good shooter, you make that play. So, I threw it back to him just because at that time I felt it was the right play. He just missed it.”
Four times out of five, Lopez would have made that open shot. It just so happened that his attempt didn’t find the bottom of the net when it mattered the most.
Such are the breaks of the game.
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