All-Star Moment of the Day: Damian Lillard drops 50 points, dishes out 13 assists as Trail Blazers beat Pacers in a high-scoring contest

Contributor
Yash Matange
All-Star Moment of the Day: Damian Lillard drops 50 points, dishes out 13 assists as Trail Blazers beat Pacers in a high-scoring contest image

On a day, overshadowed by the tragic passing of legend Kobe Bryant, Damian Lillard showed what Mamba Mentality looks like, and single-handedly carried the Trail Blazers past the Pacers 139-129 in Portland with a 50-piece.

The game began with the Blazers and Pacers honouring the great Laker legend by committing intentional 24-second (shot clock) and eight-second (half-court) violations respectively. Bryant wore #8 for the first 10 years of his career before switching to #24 for the second half of his two-decade career. 

He scored 50 points on 14-of-23 shooting from the field, including 8-of-12 from the three-point line and 14-of-16 from the free-throw line. He  dished out 13 assists, grabbed six rebounds, committed just the lone turnover, and was a team-high + 19 in his 38 minutes of play. 

With this game, he became the first player in franchise history to have three straight 40+ point games.

The other key contributors for the Blazers were

The Balzers for big contributions from CJ McCollum, who added 28 points and five assists, on 11-of-21 shooting and 6-of-9 from three, while Hassan Whiteside put in a super-efficient performnace with 21 points and 14 rebounds, shooting 9-of-11 from the field, combining with Lillard to hand the Pacers their second loss on this five-game Western Conference road trip. 

The Pacers began this road trip with a comeback victory in Denver behind Domantas Sabonis' first career triple-double. And now, in the road trip finale in Portland, Sabonis recorded his second - 27 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists - but the Pacers were just outshot by the Trail Blazers.

The hosts knocked down 20 three-pointers on 35 attempts, outscoring the Pacers by 21 from beyond the arc. Their red-hot shooting allowed the Trail Blazers to win this despite committing 10 more turnovers than the Pacers' 7.

Lillard decided to honor Bryant's legacy by competing hard in this one.