Damian Lillard very much resembled an NBA player seeing his first game action in nine months early on during the Portland Trail Blazers’ first preseason matchup of the season Monday night.
His shot was often short and he seemed a bit out of sync while making just one of his first six field goal attempts at Climate Pledge Arena, where the Blazers lost 102-97 in front of a sellout crowd of 18,440 in Seattle.
But then Lillard began to settle in. He made four of his final seven shots to finish with a team-high 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting in 23 minutes.
Not bad considering he was limited to 29 games last season because of a core muscle injury that required surgery in January.
“I just felt relaxed just coming out and having fun just hooping again,” Lillard said. “When I got out there I just felt good. I was moving around well.”
Lillard added that he didn’t worry at all about the core muscle issues that had bothered him off and on for several seasons.
“I didn’t have anything on my mind other than just playing,” Lillard said. “I settled into the game pretty quickly.”
The rust he showed was understandable. At the end of the night, Lillard left the arena pleased.
“When I knew my night was done, I felt good about what I did out there,” Lillard said. “It’s what I’ve been wanting to get out of the preseason. I got some good minutes in and do it again tomorrow.”
The Blazers (0-1) host Utah (0-1) Tuesday night at the Moda Center.
One aspect of the game that jumped out was Lillard playing off the ball with Anfernee Simons at point guard. This allowed Lillard more freedom to move around and get open shots.
“Obviously, I’ve got to be me,” Lillard said. “Obviously, there’s gonna be times where I play in pick-and-roll and play in some isolation. But I think the kind of basketball that we want to play is gonna require having some balance of me being off the ball and Ant being off the ball.”
Aaron Fentress reported from Seattle.
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).
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