Portland Trail Blazers: A closer look at the greatest stretch of Damian Lillard’s career

How Lillard’s offensive barrage goes beyond individual scoring

But beneath the surface, Damian Lillard’s greatness over the last few months, years even, has additional layers. The way you have to defend him is different.

The next time you throw a party, turn on some Damian Lillard pick-and-roll film. Defenders of all sizes and speeds turn into heavy foot galoots when Lillard puts them through the “moment of truth.” This is a part of the delirium his gravity creates, especially on soft hedges; in turn, the rest of the Blazers are beneficiaries of 4-on-3s. this.

Think about some of the swingmen Lillard has shared the floor with Maurice Harkless. Al-Farouq Aminu. Evan Turner. Trevor Ariza. Rodney Hood. It serves as no coincidence that each of these guys either had their career years around Lillard, or had their most efficient shooting marks in the black-and-red.

And that’s no slight; they put the work in, too. But with the fear Lillard evokes on a nightly basis — think here on this play with Goran Dragic — it serves as a revelation.

Rewind that play, slow it down, whatever you have to do to notice. Goran Dragic is no Gary Payton, but even this is blooper-worthy. Dragic, like most defenders, is more willing to give up a wide-open, high school layup line take at the rim than a 35-foot bazooka from the feared sniper. Such is life for the Blazers on offense these days.

Along the way, we’ve witnessed the now 5-time All-Star expand upon his strengths (the No. 1 three-minutes-or-less scorer in the NBA, and doing so on a blistering 60-60-100 percent line). He’s long entered the exclusive fray of players who strike fear into a defense with a simple look, or pseudo-motion.

A strained groin and a two-game losing streak heading into the All-Star break put a bit of a damper on what beforehand was the most impressive stretch of Lillard’s Hall of Fame career.

72 days separate Lillard’s first 60-point game of the season on Nov. 8 from the most recent on Jan. 20, which tells us that the sky’s the limit for his offense, and Lillard may even be able to disguise the limit on where his offense caps off.

And if the postgame interviews of Lillard and McCollum following the Memphis game are of any indication, we may only be a few a few breaths and a late-game sideline meditation away from something we haven’t seen since, well, that Damian Lillard guy did it, once upon a time last week.