On fire since his return from injury in early December, Damian Lillard has chained cards like pearls and took the opportunity to get very seriously closer to the Blazers’ all-time record in terms of scoring. Former Portland fullback Clyde Drexler is still in the lead, but not for very long.
70.
Damian Lillard is 70 points short of taking first place in the ranking of the best scorers in the history of the Oregon franchise.
With 17,971 units scored in the Blazers’ jersey since the start of his NBA career in 2012, Dame DOLLA very seriously threatens Clyde The Glide, who stopped at 18,040 points in the space of 867 games between 1983 and 1995. And given the current form of Lillard, who runs at… 38 pawns on average over his last four outings, we think he could take his place on the throne at the end of this week.
Dame will make a trip to Texas this weekend with a back-to-back to play on the side of Dallas (Friday) then Houston (Saturday). Can he keep up his crazy pace to score more than 69 points in two games and take the record? It is clearly a possibility, even if we cannot exclude a scenario in which his coach Chauncey Billups decides to spare his 32-year-old leader (absent for 7 games in a row between the end of November and the beginning of December). In the latter case, it will be necessary to wait until next week to see Lillard take the record (most likely in Oklahoma City which will host Portland twice in a row), but clearly it is only a matter of days now. And who better than Lady to take this first place?
“Obviously it’s not just the scoring, but when you start going up those numbers, it’s a big thing. And the fact that it’s Clyde Drexler, every person who knows NBA history is going to respect and honor that. To be in this franchise for so long and to be able to sustain such a level of success to break such a record means a lot.”
– Damian Lillard, via nba.com
We’ve been talking about the face of the Blazers for a decade, of an exceptional player who proudly wears the colors of Portland, of a competitor who gives everything to try to take his franchise to the top of the NBA instead of going to see somewhere else. Damian Lillard is still seven seasons with an average of at least 25 points (2022-23 included), he who is about to take Drexler’s record of playing 140 fewer games than the old rear. Lillard is also a string of individual achievements with Portland, it is other franchise records to his name (scoring as well as 3-pointers), as well as numerous qualifications in the Playoffs and even a participation in the Finals Conference in 2019 (a first since 2000).
In short, it’s only fair that Damian takes the lead in the scoring charts, even though we all know his ultimate goal is still to win his first NBA title.
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Source stats : Basket-Reference, nba.com
