Portland Trail Blazers: the good, bad, and ugly from their slugfest against the Wizards

The Good:

Damian Lillard is the real deal. Although he had a poor shooting night (7/21), he came alive when it mattered in crunch time, nailing a big three-pointer and an even bigger floater.

And even when he was struggling in the beginning of the game, he continued being aggressive and finding his way to the line. He shot 15 free throws this game, hitting 13 of them. While Lillard definitely could’ve shot better, the Blazers needed him to be his crafty self to have a chance at winning this game at all.

He finished with 28 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists.

Nik Stauskas is the greatest player of all time. That’s right, better than MJ. Better than LeBron. Lightyears from Kobe.

All kidding aside, Stauskas came up huge for the second time in three games. He hit a plethora of critical threes to keep the Blazers in the game, tied his career-high in rebounds at eight, and played key minutes for Portland down the stretch.

You can call him Nik StausKlutch. (I’ll keep workshopping it.)

Without him, this game likely never would’ve gone past regulation.

Al-Farouq Aminu had his best game of the season. He shot six-for-eight from the field, three-for-four from deep, and grabbed 15 rebounds.

Previously, he had been shooting a team-worst 26.7 percent.

No doubt, the team got a huge lift from Chief tonight, even if it was in a losing effort. Let’s hope he can carry this momentum into the next one when other guys have better nights so Aminu can act more complementary.