Although speaking of the Blazers, most fans believe that this season is hopeless and that Lillard will have to go sooner or later. But in Lillard's words: "This team is not going to give in." No matter how tough the situation is, no matter how bleak the road ahead looks, this team will not give up. ”
Losing to the Pelicans on Wednesday, Lillard was ousted for the first time in his career. In the final moments of the game, when the Blazers were hopeless to win, Lillard applied to the referee for two technical fouls and was sent off, and Lillard used this way to vent his anger.
Lillard played 40 minutes in that game, shooting 13-of-24 from the field and 6-of-11 from three-point range, and blasted a team-high 39 points, 2 rebounds and 7 assists. But the team's still poor defense and other people's poor play made the Blazers lose to the Pelicans, who were still the bottom at the time.
39 points isn't even Lillard's highest of the time, and lillard played his best game of the season so far in the Dec. 18 game against the Hornets, who was also 6-of-11 from outside the three-point line, cutting a season-high 43 points.
Next against the in-form Grizzlies, Lillard scored 32 points on 11 of 12 free throws to win. In the last three games, Lillard has scored a total of 114 points, averaging 38 points per game.
This was Lillard's small response to the slump at the start of the season, and since December, Lillard's score has not fallen below 20. But while Lillard's form picked up, the Blazers remained sluggish.
The Trail Blazers are currently in tenth place in the West with 13 wins and 19 losses, three wins away from the playoff threshold. In 11 games in December, the Blazers lost eight games, including a wave of seven straight losses.
CJ McCollum's absence has put Lillard in a situation of one man against a team, and although Powell also has such a performance as 10 of 16, he is still not stable enough overall.
As of now, Lillard has improved his stats to 23.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 7.5 assists, and his three-point shooting percentage has improved to 32.7%. A supergiant certainly won't keep a sluggish feel all the time, and the recovery of this time proves that his groin injury doesn't seem to be a big problem.
After being criticised by the media for his poor form at the start of the season, Lillard revealed that for the last three or four seasons, Lillard has been dealing with his groin injury. Similar to James's situation, the groin is not a major injury, but it will always hurt, especially after pulling.
I remember that since last season, Lillard has been intermittently absent due to groin injuries. Lillard at the Tokyo Olympics played a crotch, and a groin injury was also part of the reason.
Of course, this is not to excuse his slump at the beginning of the season, according to Lillard, as long as he can play, there is no reason. But injuries do exist and do affect Lillard's condition.
Of course, injuries may not be the external factors that have had the biggest impact on Lillard this season, and those endless trade rumors, those hats that are unnecessarily put on his head, have made Lillard tired of it.
The media said he forced management to trade CJ, the media said he had long wanted to leave Portland, and although Lillard said these were lies over and over again, there were always people who liked to make a fuss about him.
They seem to have been in a vortex ever since the Blazers sacked their nine-year-old head coach Stotts, who has been patiently teaching Lillard by his side since he entered the league, and Stotts watched Lillard become a superstar step by step.
Sacking Stotts was a no-brainer decision, Stotts decided on the Blazers' cap, and the Blazers wanted to break through or make a big deal or change coaches, but replacing a Billups who had no coaching experience at all was debatable.
Billups' egalitarianism has proven defeat, and it's stupid to engage in egalitarianism when you have a Lillard in your team. In the recent game, Lillard returned to the familiar rhythm, although tired, but finally found his watch.
This is the Lillard that everyone is familiar with, not the Lillard who does not dare to shoot with the ball and does not even look at the frame with his eyes. As long as Lillard continues to fight like this, even if he does not have a crown for life, he can be ashamed.