Lillard's historic night ends with loss at the buzzer to Oklahoma City

Before those free throws, it was Lillard’s four first-half 3-pointers that helped Portland stay in the game. The Blazers came out strong in the first, but the Thunder’s bench unit provided a big spark and turned the tide into the home team’s favor in the second quarter.

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The starters came back in for OKC and they helped hold on to that lead all the way to the break, going into the locker rooms up 61-58. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led with 11 for OKC, while Lillard had 14 for Portland.

Lillard knocked down another 3-pointer quick into the second half, which brought his magic number down to four points for the franchise career record.

Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant started to come alive a bit as well offensively for the Blazers, but Gilgeous-Alexander got into his All-Star rhythm as well and kept the game in back-and-forth mode.

The teams traded buckets and free throws all the way down to a 121-119 Thunder lead with 6.5 seconds to go and Portland ball.

Lillard got the ball from Justise Winslow and made a tough reverse layup through a couple Thunder defenders to tie the game at 121 with 3.3 seconds to go.

However, that was too much time, as Gilgeous-Alexander went to work from the left corner and rose up for a jumper between the paint and the arc as time expired. The bucket gave the Thunder star 35 points on the night.

While the loss certainly puts a damper on the memorable night, it’s still an opportunity for the organization and its fans to celebrate one of, if not the best, player to ever put on a Blazers uniform. Lillard finished with 28 points on the night to lead the way.

Grant chipped in 26 while Simons had 19 on a night where Jusuf Nurkić was missing due to some right calf soreness.

Portland won’t have to sit on the loss to OKC for long. The two play again at 5 p.m. Wednesday, again in OKC.

Standout stats

All Lillard: The biggest stat of the night is 18,041. That was the number Lillard reached to pass Drexler as the franchise’s leading scorer. Thanks to 28 points on the night, Lillard is now at 18,048 points for his career and will set a new mark for Portland with every basket he makes from here on out as a Blazer.

Fouls hurt: Portland shot the ball better than OKC all night, but the difference came at the charity stripe. The Thunder went 32 for 37 from the free throw line as the Blazers committed 28 fouls. With Nurkic out, OKC knew to attack the paint and that’s what it did early and often to find a way to the line.

Better depth: The turning point in the first half was the bench play for OKC, which ended up with 42 points on the night compared to Portland’s 26. That and 16 turnovers, six from the bench unit, made the night closer than it probably should have been with how well the Blazers shot the ball.

Game grade: C

Once again, the Blazers continue to play well in spurts, but the lows become too much to overcome. Against a bad team like OKC, those lows are just enough to keep the youngsters in it and interested. That’s what happened Monday with Portland shooting the ball well when it did hold on to it. Lillard has talked about finding the middle ground when things aren’t always rolling, and tonight was another example. A coupler fewer turnovers and fouls and this would have been easily a 10-point victory. Instead, the night is soured by a loss to the Thunder.