Remember LaMarcus Aldridge’s start to the 2014 playoffs?

Lillard’s series-winner against Houston was special. Not often discussed are the scorching performances by LaMarcus Aldridge in Games 1 and 2 to set it up.

LaMarcus Aldridge entered the 2014 playoffs after wrapping up another stellar regular season with career-highs of 23.2 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Injuries had unfortunately wiped Brandon Roy clean off the NBA map. Though a first-time All-Star and future face of the franchise, Damian Lillard was in just his second season. It was Aldridge who ran the Portland Trail Blazers show, though that hardly resulted in any significance in its early stages.

The Blazers hadn’t made the playoffs in Aldridge’s first two All-Star seasons. Even after securing the fifth seed in 2013-14, there was trepidation regarding LA’s ability to propel the Blazers to the second round and beyond.

That hesitancy didn’t stem from a lack of postseason experience. Aldridge and the Blazers made three straight trips from 2008-11. Nor was it because he lacked production in those years with a combined 19.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game.

A difference resides in how one functions as the sidekick compared to the No. 1 option, especially in the postseason. This contrast was one Aldridge hadn’t yet adjusted to, having played in the shadows of Roy as an under-25-year-old in both the ’08 and ’09 playoffs.

Even as the leading scorer of the 2010-11 team, he was still in the honeymoon phase of a breakout season, thus removing the burden of expectations. Additionally, the Blazers had yet to fully detach from the Roy era, which occurred that summer when the two-time All-Star retired.

Portland actually had an identical 54-28 record with their first-round matchup, the Houston Rockets. Having lost three of their four regular-season meetings, homecourt advantage was forfeited.

Houston posed an interesting matchup for the Blazers and Aldridge in particular. At 6’9”, Terrence Jones didn’t possess the height to bother Aldridge’s high-release jumper. What he lacked in size was made up for in foot speed to keep the star power forward in front of him more often than not.

In a worst-case scenario, the Rockets could always turn to Dwight Howard, in his last All-Star year, as a means of slowing down Portland’s leading man. Backup big man Omer Asik was also an option at 7’0”, 250 pounds.

And yet, Aldridge was no stranger to big games against the Rockets that season. He had 31 points and 25 rebounds in mid-December and 27 points and 20 rebounds roughly five weeks later.

He also had outings with 11-for-26 shooting and 10-of-27. Along with the 1-3 record, the playoff apprehension grew larger.

Aldridge kicked the series off right with 12 points and eight rebounds in the first quarter of Game 1 as Portland held a seven-point lead.

The game became Houston’s soon after as Aldridge cooled off with 12 combined in the second and third. The Rockets built up double-digit leads in both the second and third quarters and held an edge as large as 13 in the final frame.

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Portland battled back thanks to a rediscovery by LaMarcus Aldridge, who shot 7-of-8 on his way to 19 points in the fourth including the last-second putback to send the game into overtime.

Houston only dabbled with Howard guarding Aldridge throughout regulation for multiple reasons. Jones would have a tough time keeping Blazers’ center Robin Lopez off the board and Dwight was in foul trouble through the game — he’d foul out in overtime.

No matter the rationale, Houston paid dearly before making the switch in overtime. A strength advantage over Jones netted Aldridge whatever he wanted near the basket, including 10-of-13 shooting from the stripe and 12 made baskets in the paint.

The former Defensive Player of the Year kept his matchup at bay on 1-of-3 shooting in OT. That one field goal was bigger than most, a 3-point heave at the end of the shot clock to cut what was a six-point Rockets advantage in half midway through the extra session.

The very next possession saw Aldridge make the right play in a dish to Nicolas Batum in the identical spot as Aldridge’s 3-pointer. Batum’s make tied the game Portland would go on to win 122-120.

LaMarcus Aldridge had scored a then-franchise playoff-record 46 points on 17-of-31 shooting with 18 rebounds and two blocks. With it came homecourt and a spot in the record books. Only Hakeem Olajuwon put up similar numbers in playoff history.

The flow of Game 2 was smoother compared to its predecessor with neither side leading by more than nine points. Portland maintained a competitive proximity thanks to a steadier diet of points from Aldridge.

LaMarcus Aldridge’s hot streak carried over from Game 1 with 11 points in the first 12 minutes and 12 the next on a combined 9-of-12 shooting. 16 in the third on 7-of-11 shooting helped give Portland a six-point lead. Just four points in the fourth were his first sign of mortality, but Aldridge’s overall showing was enough to help the Blazers to a stunning 112-105 victory.

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Jones’ poor Game 1 job at keeping Aldridge from the rim prompted Rockets head coach Kevin McHale to turn to the sturdier duo of Howard or Asik at all times.

The strategy worked, as Aldridge got just five paint buckets with five fewer free-throw attempts compared to Game 1. The blocked-off lane to the basket forced him into 20 mid-range attempts, an analytical nightmare.

Unfortunately for Houston, Aldridge’s patent resided in that area his entire career. Of those 20 looks, he hit 13 of them, finishing with 43 points on 18-of-28 shooting with eight rebounds and three blocks. A similar statline had been produced only six other times in postseason history to that point — Anthony Davis did so in 2018.

In helping the Blazers to an unexpected 2-0 series lead, Aldridge silenced all questions about his ability to carry Portland and joined some exclusive company doing so.

Only four other players have scored at least 89 points in the first two games of a playoff series: Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson, Jerry West and Michael Jordan. None matched LaMarcus Aldridge’s combination of efficiency at 59.6 percent shooting with 26 boards and five blocks.

He was an unsolvable puzzle for Houston’s defense, bullying his way into the paint one night and happily draining every turnaround jumper the next.

If this matchup between the Trail Blazers and Rockets holds any weight six years later, it’s thanks to Damian Lillard.

His 3-pointer won Game 6 and sent Portland to the conference semis for the first time in 14 years. The shot was impressive in both difficult and context and marked just the fifth series-clinching buzzer-beater in NBA history.

Justified are those whose memory disappears anywhere beyond those final 0.9 seconds. Lillard’s heroics were just that amazing at such an early stage in his NBA career.

Nevertheless, lost in the pandemonium of one of playoff history’s greatest moments were the momentous performances that positioned it. Specifically, the underrated efforts of the man considered the torchbearer to the Lillard era.