MEMPHIS -- Damian Lillard was locked in at long last. This was the stingy and smothering laser-like All-Star effort we'd been promised all week by the guard. It was the defensive performance of a lifetime.
Here was Lillard late Sunday night, long after the Blazers Game 1 loss against the Memphis Grizzlies, shutting down the scrutiny, one dress sock at a time. He'd already toweled off like a retiree watching a sunset. Now, the Blazers All-Star guard sat on a folding chair, back to the room, checking text messages.
It was so crowded with media in Lillard's corner of the locker room that when guard Steve Blake emerged from the showers he had to dispatch a locker room attendant through the mob of cameras to retrieve his clothes.