Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard is in the midst of a truly remarkable scoring stretch, and he proved as much again on Monday.
Lillard, who managed to score 28 points for the eighth game in a row, is averaging 36.9 points per game over the course of his last sixteen games. But few buckets, if any, were more impressive than the one he made in the third quarter of the game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 6.
Lillard picked up his dribble, then immediately noticed there was not a defender within six feet of him. So without hesitating, the guard quickly assessed the situation and decided it was time to fire off a deep 3-pointer even though he was near half-court.
Damian Lillard just swished a 3 from basically half-court pic.twitter.com/vAp8Wz6qQZ
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) February 7, 2023
Lillard took this shot because he knew that he was able to make it. Atlanta’s Trae Young is the only player on record who has made more field goals from farther than 33 feet.
Watch the way that his brain processes what happens from this angle:
built SO DIFFERENT#RipCity pic.twitter.com/A1AAy6ODAh
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) February 7, 2023
This was the second-longest shot made in Lillard’s career — and the longest shot he has made that was unassisted. It was also the longest shot that he has made that was not a buzzer-beater to end a quarter.
All things considered, this shot was simply Definitively Dame.
But how does that compare to some of the other 3-pointers made from incredibly long-range in NBA history? The publicly available shot data is super unreliable.
This, however, was definitely the longest 3-pointer made in a non-buzzer-beater situation since Tyler Herro hit this accidental shot on Nov. 17, 2021.
Other shots that have come from a similar distance include looks from Ty Jerome in 2021, as well as Mike Conley in November 2019, Terrence Ross in October 2018, Kyrie Irving in 2015, and Manny Harris in 2012.
But each of these attempts was taken to beat a shot clock whereas Lillard fully just pulled up from this distance because he was confident enough to do as much.
The reality is that pull-up, unassisted 3-pointers from half-court simply do not happen in the NBA. Lillard, however, found a way to make it look easy.
The best takes and the sharpest bets on all the hoops storylines you need to know. Sign up for our Layup Lines newsletter, hitting your inbox on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
