Damian Lillard Scored 51 As The Blazers Pulled Off A Comeback In A Must-Win Against Philly

The Portland Trail Blazers entered Sunday’s game against the 76ers desperately needing a win to keep pace in the race for the playoffs in the West. Entering the game tied with San Antonio for ninth and just a half game up on Phoenix in 10th, a loss would’ve put the Blazers behind the proverbial 8-ball entering the final week of the seeding round.

Despite Joel Embiid playing just six minutes before exiting with an ankle injury, Philadelphia gave Portland all it could handle, and the Blazers had to call upon Damian Lillard to go deep into his bag of tricks to pull out a come from behind win. Lillard did just that, finishing the game with 51 points on 16-of-28 shooting (4-of-12 from three) along with seven assists, three boards, and a pair of steals, including this ridiculous 4-point play late to give the Blazers the lead for good as he had 18 in the final quarter.

Dame followed that up with another three and a pullup two to make it nine-straight points to give Portland the necessary cushion to get a win they desperately needed to claw back within a half-game of Memphis for 8th — and a half game clear of San Antonio for ninth.

The Sixers had a shot in the air to tie it, but Josh Richardson’s shot went begging as he was unable to add three more points to a highly productive 34-point outing to force overtime. The Blazers saw a regression to the mean from three-point range on Sunday, as the bubble’s hottest shooting team only hit 31.4 percent of their shots. Still, Lillard was able to put the team on his back and get to the rim and the foul line, assisted by a strong 20-point night from Carmelo Anthony (in 36 minutes), 16 points from C.J. McCollum, and 15 points — including two key free throws late — from Jusuf Nurkic.

It was some redemption for Lillard after missing a pair of key free throws late in a loss to the Clippers earlier in the weekend — which led to an Instagram comment battle with Paul George and Patrick Beverley. His 51-point outing showed exactly why the Blazers are considered a threat should they make it to the 8-seed, although the flipside of that coin is that they seem to need him to produce that level of heroics on far too consistent a basis to have a shot in a seven-game series.

For those counting at home, the Portland win officially eliminated the Kings and Pelicans from playoff contention in the West, leaving Phoenix, San Antonio, Portland, and Memphis (who lost to Toronto on Sunday) to battle things out this week for spots in a play-in series.