Before he ever set foot on the court Tuesday night in Denver, Damian Lillard had already earned the reputation as one of the best clutch shooters basketball has ever seen. With series-ending buzzer beaters over the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, Lillard has become one of basketball's most feared late-game performers.
But what happened Tuesday wasn't just another Dame Time episode. This was instant canon. We will be talking about this 55-point performance for decades. It was both unprecedented and unbelievable. Simply put, what Lillard did down the stretch Tuesday, even in a losing effort, was arguably the greatest single-game shooting performance the NBA has ever seen. Check out these two facts:
Lillard became the first player ever to make 12 3s in a playoff game.
Lillard finished with a true shooting percentage of 96.83%, the best in a 50-point game in NBA postseason history.
Only five players -- Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, Zach LaVine, Donyell Marshall and Kobe Bryant -- have ever made at least 12 3-pointers in a regular-season game, so sinking 12 in a playoff game is a remarkable feat on its own. Lillard's performance gets more absurd when we consider just how tough his attempts were. These were not open catch-and-shoot tries. When Thompson set the previous playoff record with his epic Game 6 performance against the Thunder in 2016, all 11 of his 3-pointers were assisted; he dribbled into just 2 of those 11 makes.
That's not what we saw last night; only 3 of Lillard's 12 makes last night involved an assist, and he dribbled into 11 of his 12 triples. Lillard self-created almost all of his looks off the bounce. According to Second Spectrum, his average shot distance on those 12 made 3s was 27.65 feet. Based on the estimated shot difficulty of Lillard's 17 attempts, the average NBA player would have connected on 30% (giving him 5 3-pointers); Lillard shot 71%. In classic Lillard fashion, two of his last four makes were from beyond 31 feet.
Perhaps the most difficult attempt was the game-tying bucket at the end of the first overtime. Lillard started deep along the right wing before attacking Shaq Harrison with a left-handed dribble. As he arrived just a few feet inside of the 3-point arc, he spun back over his left shoulder, then lunged back beyond the 3-point line, all while gathering his dribble. It was a dizzying step-back sequence that culminated with Lillard having just enough shooting space to get off a shot that tied the game at 135.
Few, if any, other NBA players would even try that kind of shot, let alone sink it. But by that point in the game, we all knew that shot was going in as it left his hand. It was a heat check. It would be considered a terrible shot by almost anyone else, but there are no bad shots for Lillard; just ask Paul George.
Everyone knew he was going to shoot that ball, but it didn't matter. Lillard got to his spot and did what he does. It was like a low post move except that it happened 24 feet from the rim. It epitomized the one-man show that Portland had become. Lillard scored or assisted on 80 points in the game, tied for the most in a playoff game in NBA history.
By the end of the night, Lillard had delivered the best 3-point shooting performance in league history, making 12 of 17 shots from beyond the arc. There have now been three instances of a player making at least 10 3s in a postseason game, and Lillard has two of them.
Along with Thompson and Curry, Lillard has become known as one of the best shooters of an era defined by great shooting. But his ability to rise to the occasion in big moments sets him apart. He's at his best at big moments.
Lillard was by far the best player in clutch time (defined by the NBA as a game within five points in the final five minutes) in the league this season. He not only led the NBA in clutch scoring, putting up 162 points, but was among the league's top 25 most active clutch time shooters this season, he was also the most efficient, with an absurd true shooting percentage of 71.6. How good is that? Over the past 25 seasons, there have been more than 400 instances of a player attempting 75 clutch time shots in a season; Lillard is the only one of those 400+ players to post a true shooting percentage better than 70%.
As if that weren't enough, Lillard also led the NBA in plus-minus in the clutch this season.
Dame Time is part of the NBA vocabulary for a reason, but even by his lofty standards, he went to another level Tuesday night.
Starting with the ridiculous step-back that tied the game with 4 seconds left in regulation, Lillard hit five 3s in a blistering span of just 6 minutes and 15 seconds of gameplay, culminating with a 32-foot bomb that gave Portland a 2-point lead in the second overtime.
But ultimately, basketball is a team game, and Lillard's teammates couldn't get it done. If there's a blemish on this incredible performance, it's the fact that Lillard didn't take any shots in the game's final 3:45 and his teammates couldn't do anything. Lillard was 6-for-8 in the two overtime periods, and had 17 of Portland's 19 points in the extra frames. His teammates combined to shoot a dreadful 1-of-14. Even the greatest players in the game need help, but that help never came for Lillard in Game 5, and ultimately that's what cost Portland.
After Lillard scored the Blazers' first five points in the second overtime period, giving Portland the lead, he had nothing left to give. Denver ended the game on a 9-0 run and took a potentially pivotal 3-2 lead in this first-round series.
When it was all said and done, the Nuggets and Blazers combined for 287 points, the second most in a game in NBA postseason history. The Trail Blazers and Suns combined for 304 points in Game 4 of the 1992 conference semifinals. This game was a classic, but it was still a disappointment for Lillard and his team.
However, all Portland needs to do is hold serve at home on Thursday to force a huge Game 7 back in Denver, which would set up another big crunch-time stage for the best clutch shooter in the world.