Damian Lillard’s Third Quarter Surge in the All-Star Game Should’ve been Expected

Damian Lillard was a major factor in closing Team LeBron’s deficit to Team Giannis during the third quarter to help lead them to an All-Star Game victory. He’s been phenomenal in this period all season long.

Although the Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard got off to a slow start in Sunday night’s All-Star Game, his third quarter heroics helped propel Team LeBron over Team Giannis, 178-164. He finished the game with 18 points, six rebounds, and five assists.

Lillard came out the gate missing his first three shots before connecting on a deep three-pointer. When he reentered the game in the second quarter, he began finding the range, hitting two more threes to give him a total of nine points.

Still, Team LeBron trailed by 13 at the half and was in need of a surge. Five minutes into the third, Lillard entered the game and gave the group exactly that.

Soon, he assisted Bradley Beal on a corner three to cut the Giannis lead to 11. He then came right back down the floor to drain a three from the NBA logo at halfcourt. After that, he got a kick-out from Ben Simmons and made the smart swing pass to Klay Thompson to net another three from the corner. The plays came one right after each other.

The lead was only five at that point and was immediately cut to two on another three-pointer from Beal.

After a minute of back-and-forth, Lillard came down the court with the score at 121-124 to sink a cold-blooded three even deeper than his previous one, tying the game. The multiple deep three-pointers led to a “Logo-Lillard” nickname not long after.

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He scored nine points in the third quarter alone, matching his production from the first half.

But Lillard’s third quarter boost that ultimately helped Team LeBron secure the lead and win the game should not have come as a surprise. He has been torching opponents, All-Star Game or not, all season long following halftime.

Lillard currently leads the league in third quarter points average at 9.8, with Houston Rockets’ All-Star James Harden following at 9.6. His mid-game dominance has propped up Trail Blazers’ leads and kept them in games throughout the year.

Funnily enough, for a player so celebrated for his clutch ability, he ranks 30th in the league in points per fourth quarters at 5.4.

Of course, for a Portland club that’s been playing well during their 2018-19 campaign with Dame at the helm, there’s not much to complain about – and some of these lower numbers in the fourth could be due to him putting the game away a quarter earlier.

While Logo Lillard will certainly stick a whole lot better, Dame could also be known as “Mr. Third Quarter.”

His performance in the All-Star Game only served to reinforce his prowess during one of the more critical periods of the game.