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Damian Lillard on series-clinching buzzer-beater: ‘The last word’

Jason Rowan
| April 24, 2019

Damian Lillard hit a game-winning shot for the ages on Tuesday night to propel the Portland Trail Blazers into the Western Conference semifinals.

Lillard’s cutthroat, cold-blooded 37-foot buzzer-beater that sealed the Trail Blazers’ series-clinching 118-115 Game 5 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder left the NBA world utterly speechless. The Blazers hero nevertheless had plenty to say about his dagger after the miraculous win.

With the game tied 115-115 and Lillard with the ball near midcourt and less than six seconds remaining on the clock, the star dribbled to find his spot and made the most clutch shot of his career, one that slipped through the net as the clock hit 0.0.

“It was a great feeling when it left my hands,” Lillard said after the game, via ESPN. “It felt good.”

Lillard scored a franchise-record 50 points in the win. He joins Bob Cousy, Bob Pettit, Wilt Chamberlain, Sam Jones, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley as the only players in NBA history to score 50 points in a game in which their team clinched a series, per NBA stats.

Lillard further burgeoned the already-legendary performance by posting a historic stat line.

Lillard opened up about the epic performance and what perhaps inspired it after the game.

“The game, the series was over and that was it,” Lillard said. “And I was just waving goodbye to them. I think after Game 3, Dennis Schroder was out there pointing to his wrist, they was out there doing all these celebrations and doing all these stuff. We kept our composure and after one win that’s what they decided to do. And we was just like, ‘OK, what we want to do is win four games.’ And then when we win those four games there’s not going to be nothing to talk about. So that’s what that was.

“There’s been a lot of back and forth, a lot of talk and all this stuff, and that was the last word. That was having the last word.”

Having the last word, indeed.