Trail Blazers' Damian Lillard: Team-high scoring total in narrow loss

Lillard posted 25 points (10-18 FG, 4-8 3Pt, 1-2 FT), eight assists and two rebounds across 38 minutes in Monday's 104-101 loss to the Nuggets.

Lillard had a mostly quiet first half before starting to heat up in the latter portion of the second quarter. The star point guard has eclipsed 20 points in seven straight games while dishing out between seven and nine assists in all of those contests. He's had the hot hand from the field of late, shooting at least 50.0 percent in five of the games during the aforementioned sample and hitting the mark from three-point range in three of his last four. Factoring in Monday's production, the 27-year-old is averaging 25.0 points (on 50.3 percent shooting), 7.6 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.1 steals across 35.4 minutes in nine January contests.