It was the Damian Lillard show and the Dallas Mavericks couldn’t do anything. In one of the best individual performances of the season, Lillard led the Portland Trail Blazers to a much-needed win, by scoring a mammoth 61 points. 17/32 from the field. 9/17 from three and finally he made all 18 free throws he attempted.

Back in May, Lillard had announced he wouldn’t play in the Bubble if his team wasn’t given a fair chance. But when the official format was announced, and the Blazers had a fair chance to qualify for the playoffs, Lillard arrived on a mission.

“It ain’t nothing I want more,” Lillard told Yahoo Sports’ Chris Haynes post-game. “I told you when I first came here, I ain’t come here to waste my time. They gave us a chance to get in like we asked for, and that’s what we’re here to do … our work ain’t done yet, but we’re fighting for it.

“It was going to come down, once again like all our games have, to who wanted it more. Down the stretch, we were the team that made the plays.”

Damian Lillard says job not finished yet

With this win, the Blazers have leapfrogged the Grizzlies, who lost their game against the Celtics. The Blazers are now the eighth seed with 34 wins and closely trailing them are the Grizzlies and Suns with 33 wins each.

Finally, Lillard was asked about what his mindset will for their final seeding game against the Brooklyn Nets.

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“That’s the most important game of our lives,” Lillard said. “Tonight was great. We said we need one win. We’re going to focus on one game. We got this one done, and that’s the most important one. We got to finish it out right. We’ve got to come out with the same mentality we had tonight, get the job done. We control our own destiny and we know what we’ve got to do.”

Surprisingly, the Nets have one of the best records in the bubble. They were expected to be the punching bag for teams since they had a weakened team. But they have been on a roll and are 5-2 right now. So despite the Nets missing four of their starters, the Blazers will not take it lightly and will come out all guns blazing.

Sources: Turner Sports PR on Twitter, Portland Trail Blazers vs Dallas Mavericks