Le Batard: Blazers G Damian Lillard Highlights 2 Turning Points Of 2013-14 Season

Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard was interviewed on The Dan Le Batard Show on Wednesday.

Audio of the interview -- which was conducted by Le Batard, Stugotz and Stan Van Gundy, can be found right here on the show's website. The interview starts at the 35:30 mark in the file.

Here's a brief transcript from the interview, in which Lillard discusses two major turning points of Portland's 2013-14 season.

Who is providing vocal leadership this year?

Everybody had their time last year. This year, I've had times where I've had to say something. Mo [Williams], Earl [Watson], [LaMarcus Aldridge], but I could remember one time in training camp, we were in a scrimmage, and Robin Lopez came over to help somebody block a shot at the rim. His man ended up getting a tip dunk. He got mad. He just started yelling, 'Where's my help side?' He got after everybody else that's on this team.

The next possession something similar happened, everybody was there early. Everyone was right where they were supposed to be. Just the fact that he spoke up, he was kind of pissed off about it, and everyone jumped right in line. From that point on, it started to happen. People weren't holding back from speaking up when they needed to.

Which game made you think "we belong here" among good teams?

I think Golden State was probably the game. It was kind of a little scuffle out there. Everybody on the floor was involved in it, they had each other's back. That was the moment where I realized that we were all together. We lost a couple of our players. [Wesley Matthews] had 26 points at the time he was tossed out, Mo was playing a good game, he got tossed out. We had to find a way to get it done on the road against a good team and we found a way to get it done.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter