NBA Star Index: Damian Lillard's clutch numbers, Jimmy Butler's stifling defense without fouling turning heads
Also, James Harden is averaging a triple-double over his last 15 games
By
Brad Botkin
•
3 min read
Welcome back to the NBA Star Index -- a weekly gauge of the players who are most controlling the buzz around the league. Reminder: Inclusion on this list isn't necessarily a good thing. It simply means that you're capturing the NBA world's attention. Also, this is not a ranking. The players listed are in no particular order as it pertains to the buzz they're generating. This column will run every week through the end of the regular season.
At this point, if Lillard isn't at or very near the top of your MVP board, you have some explaining to do. He just keeps pulling off the impossible as a matter of routine, his latest late-game heroics coming in the Portland Trail Blazers' 125-124 victory over the Pelicans, whom Lillard personally outscored 15-9 over the final 6:53 to rally the Blazers from a 17-point deficit.
⌚️ 50 POINTS ON 20 SHOTS ⌚️@Dame_Lillard erupts for a season-high 50 to go along with 10 AST, sparking the @trailblazers 17-point comeback win! #RipCity pic.twitter.com/Ws5cuuqklR
— NBA (@NBA) March 17, 2021
The Blazers are now 6-1 in one- or two-point games this season, and their 16 clutch wins falls short of only Brooklyn's 17. In those clutch minutes, Lillard leads the league with 124 total points on 60 percent shooting, including 53 percent mark from 3, and he's a perfect 38 for 38 from the free throw line.
The Blazers are a net-negative team this season, but the math flips in the clutch, where Portland sports a godly plus-57 point differential in Lillard's minutes. Here were Lillard's numbers in winning time against New Orleans.
- Fourth quarter: 20 points (6/9 FG, 3/6 3PT, 5/5 FT), 3 REB, 2 AST
- Final five minutes: 12 points (3/5 FG, 1/3 3PT, 5/5 FT), 3 REB, 1 AST
What Lillard has done in keeping the Blazers in the thick of the Western Conference playoff picture with CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic on the shelf for the majority of the season is the very definition of Most Valuable Player. To me, if the season ended today, I don't know how you give the MVP to anyone other than Lillard, who continues to turn water into wine for a Blazers team that is starting to get healthy and, especially if they have a deadline move in them, could suddenly look very dangerous come playoff time.
The Heat have won 10 of their last 11 games with Butler in the lineup, and they are 15-6 with the league's best defensive rating since he returned from a 10-game COVID-19 protocol absence on Jan. 30.
Two things stand out about what Butler is doing for the Miami Heat, who look like they could be a sleeping giant come playoff time. First, he has gotten back to prioritizing his own scoring after becoming, at times, deferential to a fault during his first season with the Heat. Butler has scored at least 24 points in eight straight games, and he is the only player in the league averaging at least 21 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals for the season.
Second, Butler is dominating defensively. His ball-hawking instincts are second to none, and the fact that he plays so aggressively without fouling is next level. For the season, Butler has 68 stocks (steals + blocks) against just 35 fouls. Remarkable. This hustle play against Cleveland tells you everything you need to know about Butler:
Look at the time and score. Miami is up by 17 with under five minutes to play. Butler has every excuse in the world to let off the gas in this situation, and nobody would've batted an eye had he conceded that possession. But Butler is a different breed, and Miami is arguably the Eastern Conference's most playoff-prepared team outside of Brooklyn because of him.
Harden is a long shot to win MVP for a variety of reasons -- his superstar teammates and the fact that he switched teams mid-season chief among them -- but his case gets stronger seemingly every time he steps on the floor.
On Wednesday, Harden put up 40 points, 15 assists and 10 rebounds in a win over Indiana with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant both in street clothes. It was Harden's third straight triple-double, and his 11th of the season. Over his last 15 games, in fact, Harden is averaging a triple-double: 27.3 points, 11.2 assists and 10 rebounds. The Nets have gone 14-1 in those games.
