Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers are heading to the Western Conference Finals after beating the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 on Sunday, 100-96. While Lillard struggled in Game 7 in Denver, finishing with just 13 points on 3-of-17 shooting, he and CJ McCollum, who had 37 points Sunday, have come up huge during this playoff run. Lillard, of course, had that series-clinching shot against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and that scored 28 or more points in four games against Denver. And when Game 7 ended, Lillard seemed to be taking it all in as he headed back to the locker room, showing so many emotions as he skipped his way back to to his guys where he shared a special moment with GM Neil Olshey. This is great: Western Conference Finals bound for the first time in 19 years! MOOD pic.twitter.com/e7JgQZ5t0b — Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) May 12, 2019 Lillard is a lot of fun to watch and easy to root for. And now we get to see him lead the Trail Blazers up against Steph Curry and the Warriors. That should be fun.<doc-sep>The Portland Trail Blazers trail the Denver Nuggets 48-39 at halftime of Game 7 of their Western Conference semifinal series. If they are to come back and win, the Blazers need a lot more from Damian Lillard. Lillard, Portland’s star point guard, had a woeful first 24 minutes. He is second on the team with seven points scored, but is shooting only 1-of-9 from the field. Lillard has also missed all four of his three-point attempts. He does have four rebounds, two assists and two steals, but if he can’t up his scoring output, Portland will almost certainly lose. C.J. McCollum, Lillard’s backcourt mate, has kept the Blazers in it with 15 points in the first two quarters. Damian Lillard 1st half numbers: 7 Points 1-9 FG 0-4 3-PT FG pic.twitter.com/WXgB4lEmIN — FanDuel (@FanDuel) May 12, 2019 Lillard has been averaging nearly 30 points per game in these playoffs. He put up 32 in Portland’s win in Game 6 on Thursday. He certainly has the ability to take over in the second half. Just look at what Stephen Curry did on Friday, when he didn’t score in the first half before a 33-point second half explosion. The third quarter of Portland-Denver is coming up shortly on ABC.<doc-sep>Damian Lillard says he stuck with his shot in the third quarter and he knows this team will be ready for Game 7 in Denver. (2:11) PORTLAND, Ore. -- It was about four minutes into the third quarter of Game 6 of their Western Conference semifinals, and Damian Lillard peeled off a high screen, sizing up Nikola Jokic in front of him. He had Jokic leaning, and Lillard saw his opportunity. One hard dribble, stop, pop and fire. Except Jokic saw it coming. Lillard was caught in the air and had to throw it to no one in particular. Gary Harris picked it off and Lillard balled up his fists, swinging them in the air in frustration. It wasn't just a turnover; it was a missed opportunity at a moment. Twenty seconds earlier Lillard had hit a 3-pointer -- officially listed at 27 feet -- that came right after hitting a 19-foot step-back. There was a low growl in the Moda Center as everyone could sense something finally unlocking for Lillard. It's not that he'd been bottled up in the second-round series, but the signature haymakers weren't there. It's rare for Lillard to score quietly, but his 26.2 points per game on 42.9 percent shooting through the series' first five games weren't registering any decibels. The Portland Trail Blazers are more than just what Lillard makes them, but he is their heartbeat. There's an obvious fear on the other side when he turns on the oven and gets out the ingredients to cook. A Lillard 3 is worth the same as anyone else's, but not in the abstract. It has an intangible value. So when he hit the eject button to rise up on a dime to launch in front of Jokic, it's not subtle what Lillard is trying to do. He's hunting a timeout. He wants to make the opposing coach call one. "Because I know how it feels being on the other side, the visiting team, when the crowd is going crazy and you've got to call a timeout," he said. "You've got to regroup and go in the huddle and have these conversations. "I guess that is true," he said, thinking it over. "I look for those moments." The Trail Blazers will play in their first Game 7 since 2003. Thomas Boyd/AP After he shook off the turnover, he was back to hunting. Two minutes later he turned the corner and got downhill to the rim for a layup. The Denver Nuggets didn't answer and he followed it with a midrange jumper. Four-point lead. Jokic scored five straight on his own to give Denver a lead, but Lillard responded with a 3 to put Portland back up two. Two free throws from Lillard, but a Paul Millsap layup in return. So it was time to get serious about it. Time to step out to near logoland. Splash. Five-point lead, momentum building, a Zach Collins block and Jokic foul, and Lillard got what he wanted. Timeout, Denver. "You're not going to kill 'em in the third quarter, you're not going to kill 'em with eight, nine minutes left in the fourth quarter," Lillard said, "but you can get that crowd going." Lillard's logo shot is a nuclear weapon few possess in the NBA, but one the Nuggets have largely eliminated. Against the Thunder, he went 5-of-5 on shots from 30-plus feet. Prior to Game 6, he was 2-of-6 against Denver, and if he took one, it was because he was trying to, not because it was there. In Game 6, he was 2-of-2 from 30-plus (not counting his heave at the end of the third quarter from 72 feet that was on line and hit the front of the rim). Against the Thunder, Lillard averaged 5.2 3-pointers a game; against Denver, he hadn't hit more than four in a game. Game 6, he hit six 3s. "It was definitely a combination of him understanding what time it is," Malone said, "and us not being as engaged defensively as we need to be." By the end of the third quarter, the tide had basically turned. Lillard scored 17 of his 32 in the third, featuring three ruthless 3s. The Blazers had control and Lillard felt to be the perpetual, unrelenting threat he was for five games against the Thunder. The fourth quarter was about finishing, and with Rodney Hood's continued resurrection, CJ McCollum's slithering midrange daggers, only four points were needed from Lillard to close a 119-108 win, forcing Game 7 on Sunday. "Don't overthink, don't make it some big, crazy deal or nothing like that," Lillard said of Game 7. "We're going to play a basketball game. And it's a big game, and we've won on their floor before, and we know what type of mentality we had when we did that." McCollum summarized it to the simplest, most understandable form. "Somebody's got to go to Cabo or Cancun, as Chuck would say," he said. For as much as what fuels the Lillard mythology -- the big shots, the clutch moments, the catchphrase, the wrist-tapping -- Dame Time has never been in a Game 7. There's a Lillard lore building in real time this postseason and it feels like Game 7 could be another chapter. The Nuggets have prioritized Lillard to an extreme degree in the series, forcing the ball out of his hands. But with their season on the line, one would expect nothing less than Lillard would take matters into them. And the same goes for Game 7. "Damian knows this is win or go home, you know what kind of mindset a great player is going to come out with," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. "Coupled with us maybe not being as physical and into him, our bigs not being up at the level as often, so he's able to come off and make six 3s. We've done a really good job of taking away the 3-point from him for most of the series, and tonight he got off." It would seem there was possibly some kind of adjustment, some tactical chess move that opened an inch more of room for Lillard to break free that could carry over to Sunday, and while maybe some of the Blazers' screens were set higher and Terry Stotts instinctively rolled with a smaller lineup to space the floor, it's not always that complicated. "Some of it was he just really made good plays as well," Stotts said with a shrug. Said McCollum: "As we always say, it's a make-or-miss league. Tonight he made 'em. A game on the line, a series on the line, that's when great players rise to the occasion. He understood what was at stake." The Blazers have been pushed to the limits this season, their resolve tested at different stages, to different degrees. A Game 7 on the road is almost a fitting final exam to see if they can go further than they have in the Lillard era. Lillard is the kind of player that seems built for it, his steely leadership setting a focused, calm tone for the team. It will be tense, it will be challenging. It will be about daggers, about shifting waves of momentum, about details, about moments. And Lillard is always looking for one of those.<doc-sep>
Damian Lillard on Game 7: "Im going in there to get the job done" originally appeared on nbcsportsnorthwest.com If there's one thing avid Trail Blazer watchers expect on Sunday it's Damian Lillard to have a big game. He loves the big stage and has a way of performing on a level to match the spotlight. And he's a true leader, the captain whose teammates will willingly follow him into whatever situations this team is likely to face. Here are his thoughts about Sunday's Game 7, the first Game 7 of his career: "I mean, I think it's always people saying people have never been in a Game 7, but it's basically a game where only one team is going to make it out. It's your last opportunity to play, so facing elimination is what it is to me. That's going to be my approach. We were facing elimination (Thursday). The only thing that's going to change is that it's going to be on the road. "It's for our season. for all the marbles. For me, I'm not going in there saying I've never been in a Game 7. I'm going in there saying I know what this team is capable of. "I know what I am and I know who I am as a player and I'm going in there to get the job done. I'm not concerned with it being a Game 7 or whatever. It's not Game 7 of the Finals, so it is what it is, "The No. 2 thing is to get rest, stay off our feet, rest our bodies, make sure we do that part. And the No, 1 thing is to have our minds right. Don't overthink. Don't make it some big crazy deal or anything like that. We're going to play a basketball game. It's a big game and we've won on their floor before and we know what kind of mentality we had when we did that. "We've got to go out there, be tough, be physical, be sharp in our scouting report, play for each other, play with each other on both ends and just put the pressure on them. Make them earn everything on the offensive end and then when we get the ball, make sure we get shots up. Value each possession. Don't go out there turning the ball over, playing into their hands where they get the opportunity to get their crowd involved. Story continues "So that has to be our mentality – to just be sharp, be physical, go in there ready to take the game because the only way it's going to happen is us going in there and taking it." And it's possible that the physical stress of a long, second-round series will have an impact on who "takes it." Famously, Vince Lombardi once said, "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." I'm not sure about cowards, but it makes us tired enough to affect our performance, whatever our occupations. For NBA basketball players, it's could be a matter of winning or losing a game. A series. Or a season. And fatigue might be a real factor Sunday when the Trail Blazers face off against the Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of a series where key players have been playing a huge number of minutes (H/T Truehoop.com). Very much because of that four-overtime Game 3 in Portland, this series features the top six players in the minutes-played category of the playoffs. And four of those are Nuggets – 1. Nikola Jokic (515). 2. Gary Harris (478). 3. Jamal Murray (471). 5. Paul Millsap 471. The two Trail Blazers are: 4. Lillard (442) and CJ McCollum (431). The adrenaline of a Game 7 to decide a trip to the Western Conference finals will carry these players for a while, no question. But there is serious doubt it can carry them through another complete game. And whoever gets tired first is going to be at a big disadvantage. It's definitely something to keep in mind as the game unfolds.