Despite missing two of their top three players, the Portland Trail Blazers are on a roll, having won six straight games to take sole possession of the fourth seed in the West.
No doubt, the play of Damian Lillard has been the biggest factor — and the NBA community is starting to put him in the MVP conversation. Following the Blazers’ most recent win against New Orleans on Wednesday, FOX Sports analyst Shannon Sharpe took to Twitter to give credit to the Portland star.
Real talk, when are we going to put Dame Lillard in the MVP discussion? He’s big time clutch, was sensational again tonite.
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) February 18, 2021
Sharpe wasn’t the only one, either. All over Twitter, Dame was the subject of major hype and praise.
40 piece with 16 dimes . Sheeeshhh . Back to back traveling on the day of the game🤣🤣🤣 @Dame_Lillard really serving cheat code style like he playing mortal Kombat
— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) February 18, 2021
Damian Lillard is a legitimate MVP candidate. What he’s doing without CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic can’t be denied. He’s carrying a load like no other star right now.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 18, 2021
Portland being 18-10 with all the time that McCollum and Nurkic have missed is quite a testament to Lillard and Stotts.
— Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) February 18, 2021
This season, Lillard is averaging 29.3 points, 7.4 assists, and 4.4 rebounds per game on 44.8% shooting. Those numbers, along with Portland’s surprising performance, should make him among the top candidates for the MVP this campaign — assuming he keeps up this level of play.
Of course, Dame has bigger ambitions than taking home the MVP trophy. With CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic set to return over the next few weeks, the Blazers are shooting high — and we’ll see soon enough how far they get.
