Blazers Life Without Superstar Damian Lillard

The Blazers Aren’t Used to Life Without Damian Lillard and Have Only Experienced it 11 Times During his Five Year Career. How is the Team Handling Life Without Their Superstar?

When Damian Lillard went down with his ankle injury in the loss against the Spurs, Blazers everywhere had to be thinking “What else can go wrong this season?” The loss made it their 5th straight and put their record at 13-19.

The Blazers came into the season with a lot of hype after a first round playoff win against the Clippers. Damian Lillard has been playing like a stud this year. He leads the team in scoring (27 PPG) and in assists (6.2 APG). With Lillard out other players need to start stepping up and living up to their contracts. The Blazers have the 3rd highest payroll in the league behind the Clippers at 2 and the Cavs at 1.

With Lillard out the last four games the Blazers have gone 2-2 with wins against the Kings, and Timberwolves. The losses were to the Raptors and the Spurs, and in both games the Blazers had leads. During those four games, the Blazers are playing through CJ McCollum and looking for him to be the go to scorer. They are getting more players involved on the offensive side and they have found a new energy on the defensive end. Here are some footnotes RCP has taken from the last four games without Lillard.