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Damian Lillard sets Blazers franchise record with 60 points in losing effort

Damian Lillard entered the NBA after four years in college. He won Rookie of the Year his first year. He earned All-Star honors his second year. He made All-NBA second team his fourth year, All-NBA first team his sixth year and reached his first conference finals in his seventh year.

The point guard has never stopped getting better throughout his career, and it’s beginning to look like that trend has continued.

Damian Lillard makes Blazers history, again

Lillard put his name in the Portland Trail Blazers history books yet again on Friday, breaking his own franchise record with 60 points while going 19-of-33 from the field (7-of-16 from deep, a perfect 15-of-15 on free throws) with five assists and only two turnovers.

One of the NBA’s best players simply went supernova.

Unfortunately, a season-long trend continued for the Blazers as Lillard didn’t have much help. C.J. McCollum and Hassan Whiteside combined for 18 points on 8-of-29 shooting, with second-year player Anfernee Simons the only other player to hit double-digits with 15 points (on 5-of-14 shooting).

The resulted in a 119-115 win by the Brooklyn Nets, whose point guards somehow outscored Lillard thanks to Kyrie Irving’s 33 points and Spencer Dinwiddie’s 34 points.

Despite Lillard’s 33.3 points and 6.9 assists per game so far this year, the Blazers are only 3-6 thanks to a buzzsaw of a schedule and a shortage of help for their superstar.

Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, right, dribbles around Brooklyn Nets guard Garrett Temple during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Portland, Ore., Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer)
Damian Lillard was unstoppable Friday night. The rest of the Blazers, not so much. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer)

It was a bad night for NBA stars going off

Amazingly enough, Lillard wasn’t even the only West Coast point guard to drop more than 50 points and still see his team lose to a team led by a former No. 1 overall pick.

That honor was also bestowed on Golden State Warriors star D’Angelo Russell, who you might have heard isn’t playing with much of a supporting cast either. Together, the two guards became the first pair of players to both drop 50 points on the same night in a decade and a half.

Like Lillard, Russell’s Warriors also lost. In this case, it was Andrew Wiggins and his 40 points in an overtime 125-119 win for the Minnesota Timberwolves. It really wasn’t a good night for good performances.

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