Please Take A Minute And Appreciate The Historic Run Damian Lillard Is On Right Now
Long gone are the days where year after year Damian Lillard was slept on. Passed over for All Star games, All NBA teams, you name it there was a time where no matter what Dame did on the court he never seemed to get the recognition. Now he's widely considered a top 5 point guard in the league (which might be low) and I just want to highlight what this man is doing not just in the last 5 games, but what he did in the entire month of January. We always celebrate other guards when they do historic shit like Luka or Kyrie or Trae Young, well Dame has been better than all of em and then some. Look at this. LOOK AT IT!
That is about as insane a month of basketball as a player can have. Now the team success isn't quite there yet at 22-27, but the reality is they sit just 2 games out of the final playoff spot. They are very much alive despite being totally boned by injuries. They were so desperate on the wing they had to bring in Melo (who hasn't been terrible for them), and the one constant has been Dame's dominance.
The craziest part of this entire month and the 5 game streak especially is the efficiency. It makes no sense that a guy can be such a focal point of the offense night in and night out and be this efficient. It's not like he's taking 10 FGA a night, he's taking over 20! During this 5 game stretch it's even higher than that and his efficiency has never been better. We've seen a lot of dominant point guard play this season, but we've never seen anything like this before so I want to make sure Dame gets the proper love. To go into LA last night and put on that type of performance to steal that win is the very definition of the Mamba Mentality.
I think what makes me love to see this even more is how loyal Dame is to Portland. I can't remember a player of his stature being so open and public about their commitment to forever staying in one city. This isn't like when Kyrie said that bullshit to the Celts season ticket owners last season which was all bullshit. Dame has been open about it for years and has backed it up by signing extension after extension. To see him blossom like this for that city and franchise is pretty cool.
Now if those Lakers highlights weren't enough, please enjoy the others from this insane run