INDIA — During the whole NBA All-Star Weekend, it was “Dame Time.”
Damian Lillard of the Milwaukee Bucks won the MVP award for the All-Star Game on Sunday. He scored 39 points, which helped the Eastern Conference defeat the West 211-186 in the highest-scoring midseason exhibition to record.
As the only other player in league history to win a Saturday night event and receive MVP honors during the same All-Star Weekend, he joined Michael Jordan in that distinction.
During his postgame news conference, Damian Lillard remarked, “Anytime you are named in the same category as Mike, it is an honor, it is a significant accomplishment, even if it is All-Star Weekend.” The Kobe Bryant MVP trophy was set on the table in front of him. “Because more people would have done it if it was that simple.”
On Saturday, Damian Lillard prevailed in the 3-point competition, defeating Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks in the decisive game. 1988 saw Jordan win the dunk competition.
In addition to his outstanding performance as the runner-up on Sunday, Towns became just the fourth player in the history of the All-Star Game to break the 50-point mark, leading the West with 50 points in 28 minutes. But Damian Lillard had stiffer competition from his East counterparts, Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics and Tyrese Haliburton of the Indiana Pacers, who also play point guard.
The hometown favorite, Haliburton, finished with seven rebounds, six assists, and thirty-two points on eleven of his fifteen shots. He started the game by outscoring the West 15–14 on his own, going 5-for–5, but missing the heat check from 34 feet out.
After the West pulled within 12 points late in the third quarter, Brown’s late-game surge helped the East reclaim control of the game with 36 points on 15-for-23 shooting and 8 rebounds.
Out of the twelve votes cast, Damian Lillard received seven, with Haliburton receiving the remaining five. Midway through the third quarter, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic attempted an alley-oop to himself but failed, ricocheting the ball off the front of the rim, potentially sealing Damian Lillard’s victory. Lillard pulled up from just inside halfcourt, advanced the ball, and swished a 3-pointer from 41 feet to increase the East’s lead to 132-105 and increase his own point total to 33.
To finish the game, he scored six more points in the fourth, including a 44-foot three-pointer with 22.1 seconds left. Damian Lillard ended with six assists in addition to going 14 for 26 from the field, including 11 for 23 from beyond the 3-point arc.
Although it was his first time being designated a starter, it was his seventh All-Star participation.
Lillard, 33, declared, “At this point, I am an old hand at the game.” “Why not attempt to obtain an MVP? since I have spent enough time here.”
After spending his first 11 years of basketball with the Portland Trail Blazers, Lillard was acquired by the Bucks in an offseason trade, and he had a welcome weekend as Milwaukee was going through a trying moment at the time.
“It is been a rough year, just the transition to a new team; we have had three coaches since I have been there,” Lillard remarked, referencing Joe Prunty’s brief interim position and Doc Rivers’ unexpected removal of Adrian Griffin. “Whenever you go through these kinds of adversity-filled circumstances, I believe that is when you truly need to come out as yourself. Continue believing and doing what you are doing, and you will typically find that it comes back to you.
“You are unable to fold.”
The defensive efforts of each All-Star team could hardly be claimed to be the same.
“I believe it could be more competitive,” Lillard said. “I think a score of 200 is quite high. It only demonstrates that, contrary to what you or anyone else might have wanted, we did not go out and compete. However, I believe that to be the truth. Men have talent. Take lots of pictures. That was it—we made a lot of threes.”