Damian Lillard passes Clyde Drexler as Trail Blazers’ all-time scoring leader

Just when it appeared it may be ‘Dame Time’, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took the program. Gilgeous-Alexander struck a standard jumper as time ended, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Portland Trail Blazers 123-121 on Monday to mess up Damian Lillard’s record-setting night. Path Blazers’ all-time scoring leadersGilgeous-Alexander drove to his left and drained pipes a 14- foot pullup over Justise Winslow. The shot topped a 35- point efficiency for the 24- year-old emerging star who went into the night 3rd in the NBA in scoring. Lillard had his clutch minute, too. He made a reverse layup with 3.5 seconds staying to connect it, and completed with 28 indicate break Clyde Drexler’s franchise profession scoring record. Lillard would have chosen to set the mark in a win, however the accomplishment was still crucial to him. “It’s a fantastic sensation to arrive,” he stated. “It’s been an objective of mine and the list has a lot of gamers, fantastic history of our company, so to lastly be No 1 is an unique achievement that I’m happy of.” Drexler, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, had 18,040 points for the Trail Blazers from 1983-95 Lillard went into the night requiring 21 to pass him. Lillard connected Drexler’s overall on a three-pointer from well beyond the line in the 3rd quarter that put the Trail Blazers up 72-67, then broke the mark on a complimentary toss with 1: 33 left in the duration. Minutes later on, the Thunder public address commentator notified the crowd of Lillard’s accomplishment, and the crowd offered him an ovation. Lillard sat and rested, concentrated on a video game the Trail Blazers were routing by 3 points at the time. “Even throughout the video game tonight, I wasn’t playing concentrated on getting to the record,” Lillard stated. “I was playing the video game simply attempting to win. I understood it would take place ultimately.” Ball game was connected at 94 heading into the 4th. Anfernee Simons struck back-to-back objected to threes to provide Portland a 115-110 lead with about 4 minutes staying. Oklahoma City recuperated, and Gilgeous-Alexander completed it off with his last shot. “I captured it,” Gilgeous-Alexander stated. “I was going to attempt to deal with up, however I saw the double group so I attempted to spin far from it into the shot.” Lillard stated Gilgeous-Alexander is making his mark in the league. “He’s excellent,” Lillard stated. “He’s undoubtedly an actually great gamer. Not simply an excellent young gamer. He’s entering into his own. I can keep in mind when I was more youthful and I ended up being the leader of a group. And I was essentially presenting myself as the lead guard on the group, and I was pursuing it, you understand, being aggressive. And I see that he’s in that state. He’s attempting to reveal what he can do.”
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