Lillard: “I Love Josh Hart”

Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard praised teammate Josh Hart after the team eked out a win against the Los Angeles Lakers this afternoon.

I love Josh Hart, I love Josh Hart. When we first got together as a team we were playing pickup and doing things like that and he was super emotional. It was like we were in the playoffs, how much he cared about the pickup games, he kicked the ball and get mad and kick a chair over and stuff like that. And I’d be looking at him like, man, this dude kinda crazy.

Just being on the floor with him through the preseason and through these first couple games, he’s a winning teammate, the way he plays the game, he plays hard, he’s physical, he does everything that you ask him to do. He’s got his teammate’s best interests.

He communicates and just being on the floor with him, I love playing with him. Even though it’s early in the season, I love being his teammate and being on the floor with him, just with what he brings to our team and the way he plays. It makes it fun being on the floor with him.

Though Hart arrived in Portland in February, Lillard has only shared the floor with the versatile 6’5 wing through the early days of this season.

In three games, Hart is averaging 12.7 points, 10 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.7 steals in 38 minutes. He secured a team-high 16 boards in today’s win over the Lakers.