Damian Lillard missed a majority of the 2021-22 NBA season due to an abdominal injury that led to him getting a surgery for it. The Blazers missed the Playoffs and received Shaedon Sharpe as compensation with the 7th overall pick. This 2022-23 campaign has been different as Dame has retruned to play in full form.
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Lillard has looked like every last bit of his old self this season, if not better. He scored his first 50 point game earlier this season in a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Dame seems to be done losing when he scores that many points or more as he led the Portland Trailblazers to a victory tonight over the Utah Jazz.
In the 10-point win over the Jazz, Lillard went off for 60 points while shooting a brilliant 72.5% from the field which included 9 made shots from beyond the arc. He also had 8 assists and 7 rebounds to go along with his scoring.
Skip Bayless brings up Patrick Beverley following Dame’s 60 points
The Portland Trailblazers suffered the worst loss of their 2022-23 season when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers this past week after being up 71-46 on them by halftime. Patrick Beverley and Damian Lillard got into it with one another during the game, with Dame telling Pat that he’d ‘kick his a**’.
After successfully completing their comeback against the Blazers, Pat Bev pointed to his wrist and mocked the Oakland native’s signature ‘Dame Time’ celebration. Following the game, Beverley would give Dame his props but the latter wasn’t having it, taking to his Twitter to say, “Con man. Flip from above the rim”.
Con man. Flip from above the rim https://t.co/EpKvfyY3VG
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) January 23, 2023
After tonight’s game against the Jazz where Dame was 2 points away from breaking his own career high in points, Skip Bayless took to his Twitter to say that Lillard is lucky Patrick wasn’t out there guarding him.
Damian Lillard is fortunate PatBev isn’t guarding him tonight and clowning him by tapping the imaginary watch on his wrist.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) January 26, 2023
Damian Lillard vs Patrick Beverley
Damian Lillard and Patrick Beverley have quite the history with one another. The latter was on the Houston Rockets team that got sent home by Dame in the 2014 Playoffs off of his iconic 0.9 seconds buzzer beater in Game 6.
The two would clash once again in the Bubble when he was with the Clippers as they would chirp against at one another both on the court and off it. Of course, most recently his 5-17 shooting against the Lakers led to yet another back-and-forth.
The 6x All-Star’s record against Patrick Beverley has actually not been all too great as he’s 10-17 in 27 games played against him in the regular season. The most points he’s ever scored on him was 41 this past season.