When Portland guard Damian Lillard won consecutive games at Detroit and Cleveland earlier this season with a game-winning shot each night, he did so in different ways.
Well, sort of.
He beat the Pistons with just one-tenth of a second left in overtime after he stutter-stepped, drove, spun and lost control of the ball for a moment before he found just enough space to create a 14-foot shot that found net as the clock's final seconds ticked away.
Two nights later, he left an extra tenth of a second — a whopping two-tenths left in the fourth quarter this time — on the clock when he launched a three-point shot with one foot on the Cavaliers' half-court logo that decided a tied game.
But both times his reaction was the same sort of understatement: He walked defiantly away — no jumping, no fist-pumping, no reaction at all really other than removing his mouth guard the first time — while his teammates handled all the celebrating around him.
Just like he has done this all life ...
"When you work so much at things, you start to expect results," he said. "When I take those shots, I expect to make them. I'm confident. It's not always necessary to yell and scream about everything. Sometimes it's necessary, but if I didn't do it I didn't feel like it was necessary."
He is just 23 and still fresh enough in the NBA to become the first player ever who qualified and participated in all five All-Star events last weekend in New Orleans.
