Portland Trail Blazers Public Address Announcer Mark Mason’s introduction of Damian Lillard during starting lineups Tuesday night didn’t linger too long. It certainly didn’t last 63 seconds. The Moda Center crowd gave a nice, loud cheer for the Portland legend who now plays point guard for the Milwaukee Bucks, but there was no show-stopping, massive standing ovation.
For his part, Lillard didn’t stop to acknowledge the warm reception or greet it with a heart sign. He dapped up his teammates while Mason announced Doc Rivers as Milwaukee’s head coach, and the proceedings of the night carried on.
Business as usual.
I arrived at the arena Tuesday searching for what Rayan Rupert’s countrymen would call a certain je ne sais quoi. The matchup marked Lillard’s second return to Portland as an opponent following his departure from the franchise in September 2023 after 11 historic seasons. From a reporting perspective, I was excited to describe the “electricity” in the building I heard so much about when people discussed Lillard’s homecoming last year.
I wasn’t in attendance for that game last January, but the local press corps told me tales of a media circus. Reporters from the biggest national outlets showed up. A special pregame press conference was held for Lillard in a larger room usually reserved for the NBA Playoffs to fit everybody in. Then there was that emotional introduction and the game itself, featuring a playoff atmosphere from a sellout crowd. I wasn’t expecting Tuesday’s follow-up to reach those heights, but I was anticipating some form of it.
Compared with that mad scene, Tuesday night was unspectacular, at least in terms of the spectacle surrounding Lillard’s return. The game included the usual media procedures in the usual rooms occupied primarily by the usual suspects. By my very unofficial count, I didn’t see any Lillard tribute signs in my various scans of the crowd. It wasn’t a sellout, as those scans revealed scatterings of open seats in different sections.
Some elements pointed to the significance of Lillard in Portland. TNT was back, making this the Blazers’ only nationally televised game for the second consecutive season. In the early going, the crowd possessed a small extra buzz compared to other home games this season. A faint “Let’s Go Blazers” chant started organically in one section after tip-off and quickly died out. Fans also cheered for Lillard 3-pointers, but they didn’t really come to life until the Blazers started playing well and elevated the energy.
All in all, after another year of separation, Tuesday’s mostly routine scene demonstrated that Rip City is moving on from the Dame Era. As with any big change in life, time moves past those first milestones, then the new way becomes normalized and takes over. I wrote about this process in sports at last season’s Trail Blazers Fan Fest, less than two weeks after the trade with Milwaukee went down. At that time, the departure, as well as the drama and emotions surrounding it felt raw. Tuesday was a step much further along in the process, and one that was much more ordinary.
This isn’t to say it wasn’t exciting to see Lillard back in the building with a different team (I’m writing as a Portlander who grew from early adolescence to adulthood during Lillard’s tenure with the franchise and revered the man). It just didn’t feel like the main event the second time around.
The main event was the home team playing one of its best games of the season in front of a national audience on the way to a decisive 125-112 win. The spirited group effort by the Blazers was what made the night feel special. Deni Avdija led the way with a season-high 30 points, one of five Blazers who scored in double-figures. Portland got promising performances from key young players like Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson and Toumani Camara.
“I think our guys were chomping at the bit to just show the national audience that we can play,” Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups told reporters after the win.
“I just feel so much difference since the beginning of the year in terms of how we play, how we share the ball, how we bond together,” Avdija added. “It’s just a different team right now, so I’m happy.”
The win moved the Blazers to 3-1 overall and 2-0 at home versus Lillard since he joined Milwaukee. After this latest win, Billups said he thinks his players approach the matchup with some added intensity because of Lillard and the extra commotion. Anfernee Simons, who matched Avdija with 30 points on Tuesday, thought any extra intensity had more to do with the national TV stage than anything Dame-related.
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Simons spent his first five seasons in the NBA as teammates with Lillard, learning from the eight-time All-Star. That history props up a master-versus-apprentice storyline for these Blazers/Bucks matchups, but Simons said he doesn’t get pumped up to face his old teammate. He said they share more of a “mutual respect relationship” than one where they want to go at each other on the court.
To Simons, Lillard’s return and the shared history made the night unique. But ultimately, it was business as usual.
“Obviously, playing against Dame is always different for me because I’m always used to playing with him,” Simons said. “But to me, it just another game.”
