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The Portland Trail Blazers defended home court against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, narrowly winning 116-109 in overtime. Once again, Damian Lillard put forth a dominant performance, scoring 40+ for the fourth time this season. After the locker room cleared, CSNNW caught up with him for his thoughts on the game.
Damian Lillard
I liked how we played for most of the first half. We had a slow start, and then we picked our energy up, we played just more actively; had more bounce to our step. We didn’t close the half out like we would have liked, or start the second half, but I think we got back to flying around. We were physical. We still made some mistakes, but they were aggressive mistakes. You know, trying to help each other out, reaching for the ball, playing physical, and it got us back into the game. I think the difference in the team that we were starting the third and finishing the game was the reason why we won it.
How important was this one tonight, Dame, coming off the road trip, coming off three losses, knowing you’re going back on the road here soon?
It was huge, especially with Utah losing. It was a chance for us to separate ourselves a little bit more and, like you said, with another tough trip coming up, this was a huge opportunity for us to protect our home court. Now we got a tough one at Golden State, so coming off of three losses in a row, this was a must-have. We had to have this one.