Damian Lillard set franchise and career highs with 71 points and 13 3-pointers, and the Portland Trail Blazers slipped Sunday night with a 131-114 win over the Houston Rockets in two games.
Lillard became the eighth different player to score 70 points in NBA history. At 32, he is the oldest player in NBA history with a 70-point game and the only player aged 30 or older to have accomplished the feat, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
Lillard tied Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell for most points in a game this season after Mitchell also scored 71 in a win against Chicago on January 2. Lillard broke his own franchise mark of 61 points, which he had scored twice, with a pointer left at 4:42, which also surpassed his career record for 3 seconds in a game at 11.
Lillard’s 13 3-pointers fell just one point short of Golden State’s Klay Thompson’s 2018 NBA record. Thompson’s Warriors teammates Stephen Curry (2016) and Chicago’s Zach LaVine (2019) also had 13 3s.
In the last few minutes, the crowd at the Moda Center was on their feet, phones recording the moment as they chanted “MVP! MVP!”
Lillard left the game with 44 seconds left, level on points with Mitchell, Elgin Baylor (1960) and David Robinson (1994) for the eighth most points scored in a game in NBA history. Wilt Chamberlain owns the league record 100 for Philadelphia vs. New York on March 2, 1962 in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Lillard had 41 points and eight 3-pointers at halftime. It was a career high in a half for Lillard and the most points in a half for a player in the league this season. At the start of the fourth quarter, he had 50.
Sunday was also Lillard’s fifth career 60-point game, breaking a tie for the third-most in NBA history. only Chamberlain (32) and Kobe Bryant (6) have more, according to ESPN research.
Lillard has 15 games to a point of 50 or more, sixth-most in NBA history.
Jerami Grant added 13 points for the Blazers, who led by as much as 23 points. Portland is part of a group of eight Western Conference just four wins apart and battling for playoff spots.
Alperen Sengun had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Rockets and finished bottom in the Western Conference with just 13 overall wins and nine straight losses.
Houston trailed 102-88 heading into the final quarter but scored the first six points of the period to close the gap at 102-94. Grant’s 3-pointer for Portland extended the lead to 108-98.
Lillard’s 3, his 11th of the night to tie his career high, made it 113-103 with 6:43 to go. He added a driving layup and a free throw. Houston couldn’t catch up.
Lillard started after resting for Thursday night’s 133-116 loss to Sacramento. He competed in the NBA All-Star Game and won the 3-point contest last weekend.
But Portland was left without center Jusuf Nurkic (left calf) and guard Anfernee Simons (right ankle).
The Blazers led 31-30 after a quarter, led by Lillard’s 16. Portland extended the lead to 50-39 after Lillard hit a personal 9-2 run against the Rockets, capped by a 3-pointer from 35 feet .
The Blazers led 73-58 at the break, with Lillard becoming the 10th player since the 1996-97 season with more than 40 points in a half.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.