Damian Lillard can only remember once in his life that he doesn’t have a birthday party, so when he turned 30 on Wednesday his teammates made sure he could celebrate in the NBA bubble despite being away from his family.
But Lillard had only one birthday wish: “My only question as a birthday present is, let’s not waste our free time here,” he said to his teammates.
“The easy thing to do would be to come here and invent the excuse that we haven’t played for months, the boys didn’t play and they were rusty, we didn’t feel comfortable, we weren’t used to playing right now. It’s a lot of ways to get out of back door, “Lillard said on Thursday, explaining his message. “I just wanted to make sure I understood that this is a great opportunity for us to go out and push for the playoffs. Everyone is practically starting from scratch.”
Teammate CJ McCollum said he contacted team staff when Trail Blazers arrived at Walt Disney World Resort to do something for Lillard’s birthday. It was a day off, so the Blazers gathered in a private room to have dinner and drink some wine. After Lillard made his short speech, he turned and blew out the candles on his cake, which was supposedly served to the team.
“Obviously, nobody wants to spend their birthday in the bubble, especially their thirtieth birthday,” said McCollum. “I just tried to find a way to make it interactive for everyone and have fun outside their rooms and have a good meal with wine and things like that.”
Lillard, however, is always a bargain, and with the Blazers entering the ninth round in the West, 3½ games behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the playoff end point, he had his idea of making a push for the postseason.
“This is the mentality he has had here from the start,” said coach Terry Stotts. “Even though we enjoyed the celebrations, I thought it was typical of Dame. Keeping an eye on the task to be done.”
Lillard has been consistent in the media sessions saying that he expects his team to be ready and exit aggressively in the eight seeding games, but wanted to provide a frank and punctual message to his teammates.
“We talked about coming here locked up and ready to play, but we didn’t deal with it that way,” said Lillard. “For example, seriously we don’t come here and we take this for granted and see how it goes. We go out and we are aggressive and we put our best foot forward and we live whatever the result. But at least have the effort and the mind in the right place where we could do it. That was my reason for saying it. If we come here loose and see how it goes and we are not really determined, you are preparing for failure. “
There is considerable optimism within the team about its chances, with the starters Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins healthy and are said to be doing well in practice. Blazers have some depth, rather than climbing to fill the formation points, and have expanded in size after being a team that has struggled with rebound and internal defense.
The Blazers have been a staple in the playoffs in the Lillard era, but due to injuries this season, as well as poor performance in other areas, have not been able to continue the momentum of last season which fueled a race to surprise at the Western Conference finals. But with eight games ahead, the Blazers are aiming to win six, which they believe would put them in a position to force the play-in series.
“We already know what we need to do to get to the playoffs, so I wasn’t surprised at his message about not wasting time and taking it seriously,” said McCollum. “I think everyone knows where he is and where we are in the team.”
