NBA, NBA Playoffs

Dame calls Game: Damian Lillard waves goodbye to Russell Westbrook with buzzer beating three

By now you’ve probably seen Damian Lillard‘s game winner last night. If you didn’t witness the unreal 37-foot buzzer beater that sent Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder home (and produced the iconic photo above), you can watch the unbelievable shot below:

After the two teams jockeyed back and forth over the last couple minutes. With the Thunder up 113-111, C.J. McCollum threw a crossover on Paul George and hit a mid-range jumper to tie the game at 113. On the next play, George responded by hitting a free-throw line jumper to put the Thunder back up by two with 39 seconds to play.

Lillard wasted no time coming up court, blowing by Dennis Shroder and hit a tough reverse layup in traffic to tie the game up again at 115 with 32.8 seconds remaining. After the Thunder came up empty on the next possession, this set up the final long range bomb that Lillard hit over George.

With the shot, the Portland Trailblazers move on to the Conference Semis of the NBA Playoff bracket.

The Final Word in a Series With a Lot of Talk

After hitting the step-back, cold-blooded three that gave Dame exactly 50 points, Lillard looked at he Oklahoma City bench and waved goodbye right before his teammates mobbed him. The shot itself was amazing enough, but considering all the smack-talking between Dame and Westbrook during the series only served to bold and underscored just how much Lillard outplayed Westbrook.

“The game, the series was over and that was it,” Lillard told ESPN after the game. “And I was just waving goodbye to them. I think after Game 3, Dennis Schroder was out there pointing to his wrist, they was out there doing all these celebrations and doing all these stuff. We kept our composure and after one win that’s what they decided to do. And we was just like, ‘OK, what we want to do is win four games.’ And then when we win those four games there’s not going to be nothing to talk about. So that’s what that was.

“There’s been a lot a talk, a lot of back and forth, a lot of talk and all this stuff,” said Lillard after the game. “…and that was the last word. That was having the last word.”

Not only that, the scenario allowed the Blazers to continue celebrating while Westbrook, Shroder, George and the Thunder head back to the locker room without the standard post-series hugs and daps. What a perfect ending for Damian Lillard and the Blazers.

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