PORTLAND, Ore. — A long time ago, when Michael Jordan wasn't finished with his final comeback yet, Kobe Bryant sat in the Rose Garden in Portland and said, "There are only two killers in this league."
Jordan's 51 now, a fat cat on the sidelines owning a team. Bryant
hasn't made a playoff appearance in two years. The show must go on, and
it has—as seen by the most competitive first round in NBA postseason history.But even better than good shows are great show-stoppers.
And we just saw 23-year-old Damian Lillard drive a freakin' stake through the first NBA playoff series he ever played.
The Rose Garden has been renamed the Moda Center here in Portland, and this city hadn't seen its one big-time team win a playoff series since before Jordan went to the Washington Wizards. That changed Friday night, when the Trail Blazers' second-year guard accepted the inbounds pass with 0.9 seconds left and proceeded to terminate Dwight Howard, James Harden and the Houston Rockets with a buzzer-beating three-pointer.
The Blazers won 99-98—Lillard wiping away what would've been a difficult Game 7 for Portland to win on the road, claiming the Blazers' first series in 14 years and abruptly ending the first season of Houston's celebrated Howard-Harden partnership.
It wasn't Lillard's first execution, and it won't be his last.
Check out these last two words, because only a killer would add the last two words Lillard did in his postgame comment:
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