NBA Playoffs: 10 best players this postseason after Round 1

NBA Playoffs: 10 best players – 7. Damian Lillard

Everyone knows that Damian Lillard is one of the greatest shooters in the NBA. He is fearless in the face of any opponent, willing to pull up and shoot from as far back as the logo. He came into this postseason with two buzzer-beating series-ending shots, the only player in NBA history who can say that.

Even so, what Damian Lillard did during the first round of the playoffs was astonishing. He averaged 34.2 points per game, which should have been first except that Luka Doncic was losing his mind across the bracket. Lillard also dropped 10.2 assists per game as he tried to carry his teammates along with him.

It was absolutely carrying, as the Portland Trail Blazers had very few players have a good series alongside Lillard. Norman Powell had one good game, Jusuf Nurkic played hard, Carmelo Anthony wasn’t a liability. Yet at the end of the day, it was Lillard and only Lillard keeping the Blazers in these games.

That was never more apparent than in Game 5 when Lillard dropped 55 points in a double-overtime loss to the Denver Nuggets. He set the NBA record with 12 3-pointers, and his 55 points were the seventh-most all-time in a postseason game. The Blazers won two games, and Lillard totaled 1.5 win shares in the series, a colossal feat of individual excellence. As rumors swirl and the organization reconsiders its future, Lillard is at the very top of his game.