The Oklahoma City Thunder’s postseason came to an end earlier this week due to a masterful Game 5 performance by Damian Lillard. The All-Star guard capped off a 50-point outburst by drilling a three as time expired to win the game, punching the Portland Trail Blazers’ ticket to the second round in spectacular fashion.
After the game was over, Thunder standout Paul George was asked about the shot, as he was given the responsibility of checking Lillard. George stirred up some minor controversy when he said that the attempt by Lillard was a bad shot.
"That's a bad shot. I don't care what anybody says. That's a bad shot. But, hey, he made it. That story won't be told, that it is a bad shot. You live with that." – Paul George on Damian Lillard's game winner.
Dame was 8 of 12 from 30+ feet in the series. 4 of 6 in GM5. pic.twitter.com/YTZRIaztKT
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) April 24, 2019
There’s been a lot of chatter about this. On one hand, Lillard made it and is one of the best ultra-deep marksmen in the history of the game, capable of rising and firing from another zip code and knocking down a jumper. On the other, the numbers do say that’s generally not a great shot and if someone hits it, you’re best to tip your cap, shrug, and accept the consequences.
Lillard was asked about this during an appearance on C.J. McCollum’s podcast, Pull Up. After saying that it was, indeed, a “good shot,” Lillard broke down how he works on being lethal from deep before giving his thoughts on George’s comments specifically.
https://twitter.com/PullUpPod/status/1121466648706396161
“I think a lot of people don’t know what goes into the moments,” Lillard said. “That’s because they’re not the ones that’s there. I literally work on those shots. And I don’t work on it so I can just come out and just shoot it for the whole game. I work on it just because, over my career, I know how much attention I’m going to get from defenses. So it’s just like you’re just keeping stuff, adding more things, adding more and more, keeping stuff in your pocket, in case these types of situations do present itself. Even if it’s not something you want to lean on, it’s something that you have there, that you worked on, you spent time doing. So, you’ve got confidence in it when the time does come.
“That’s why, when I was just standing there, I was like, ‘Well, it’s probably not good in a lot of people’s eyes, but I’m comfortable with this, and I’m confident in this, so, to me, it’s a solid shot,'” Lillard continued. “For him to say that’s a bad shot, that’s just kind of being a poor sport. If anything, it was bad defense, because I had the ball in my hands with two seconds, and I wasn’t going to drive, so maybe he should’ve just bodied up.”
The Blazers had a whole lot of fun prodding the Thunder after the win, and while this isn’t quite as silly as some of the other stuff Portland did in the aftermath of the game, Lillard still knows how to fire back when the opportunity presents itself.
(Via Pro Basketball Talk)
