The 10 best NBA moments of the 2019 calendar year

2. Damian Lillard waves goodbye to Oklahoma City

The Portland Trail Blazers were the No. 3 seed out West in the 2019 playoffs, but they weren’t exactly overwhelming favorites against the sixth-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder before their opening-round matchup.

OKC boasted Paul George and Russell Westbrook, the former who would go on to finish third in MVP voting and the latter who never took his matchup with Damian Lillard lightly.

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Always a fiery competitor, Westbrook seemed to amp up the trash talk a bit against Portland and Lillard in particular on several occasions as a way to assert dominance over a positional rival.

Lillard, always calm and collected, never wavered in their playoff battle. He took it in stride and crafted a response on the court, averaging 28.8 points, 6.0 assists and 2.3 steals over the first four games while shooting 44.4 percent from deep as the Blazers took a surprising 3-1 series lead.

Westbrook, on the other hand, seemed more invested in shaking Lillard off his game than producing more of his own, averaging just 21.3 points per game on 36.3 percent shooting through four games.

Game 5 was a battle, one OKC didn’t want to lose. Lillard was doing everything he could to put the Thunder and Westbrook to bed, helping spark a 23-8 run to knot up the score in the final minute.

Russ had a chance at the go-ahead bucket but missed. Lillard brought the ball downcourt and watched the seconds tick off with only George in his way.

Rather than try to maneuver around one of the league’s best defenders, Lillard did the unthinkable, side-stepping near the mid-court logo on the right-wing and burying the longest of 3-pointers at the buzzer to clinch a series victory.

It was the second such shot of Lillard’s career, one that gave him 50 points on the night and advanced the Blazers for the first time in three years.

As the buzzer sounded and mass hysteria ensued, Lillard waved goodbye to OKC’s bench, fitting considering the tear-down the franchise would commence later that summer, and the perfect signature on a masterful clap back.