Dame Dazzles in All Star Game with 18 points, long-range 3s to lead Team LeBron to victory

Damian Lillard played 25 minutes off the bench for Team LeBron and was part of the closing lineup as his 18 points helped lead his squad past Team Giannis 178-164 in the 2019 NBA All Star Game.

The Trail Blazers made the most of his 4th All Star Game appearance, pouring in SIX 3-pointers, including a couple of absolute bombs in the 3rd quarter.

#DamianLillard CATCHES 🔥 from beyond the arc, scoring 18 PTS off the bench in the #TeamLeBron win. #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/5Z0I7fr9eT

— 2019 NBA All-Star (@NBAAllStar) February 18, 2019

Lillard certainly made his case to be the game’s MVP. Though he didn’t have the raw stats (KD won MVP by default with 31 points), Lillard’s long-range buckets came at big moments, twice tying the score after Team LeBron trailed by as many as 20 points in the third quarter.

“It’s just a matter of seeing one go in,” Lillard told TNT’s Kristen Ledlow after his stellar performance. “I saw one go in early and I was able to get hot.”

Lillard added six rebounds, five assists and two steals to compliment his scoring outburst.

Dame led all players in the game with a plus-minus of +20.

@Dame_Lillard was +20 in the all star game 😳😳🔥🔥🔥

— Dirir Harden (@dmohamed14) February 18, 2019

Lillard didn’t match his 21-point performance from last year’s All Star Game, but the way he captured the audience’s attention with his long-range buckets made Sunday’s performance more impressive than 2018. He finished with a 6-for-17 shooting night, all attempts coming behind the 3-point line.

Lillard totaled 179 feet of made 3-pointers.

Former Blazer LaMarcus Alridge had 2 points in 11 minutes of action, also playing for Team LeBron.

Giannis Antetokounmpo was the game’s high-scorer with 38 points in defeat.

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