Damian Lillard Helps Keep Trail Blazers’ Dark-Horse Dreams Alive

PORTLAND, Ore. — Damian Lillard wasn’t going to let the Portland Trail Blazers fold.

The Blazers needed more out of him after two previous losses in Los Angeles, and he delivered on Saturday, scoring 32 points to lead the way in a 96-88 Game 3 win that cut the Clippers’ series lead to 2-1.

But it wasn’t just Lillard’s scoring that lifted the Blazers and put off what had seemed to be an inevitable first-round exit. It was the never-say-die attitude that he instilled in his teammates even as the Clippers threatened late.

“Guys just aren’t ready to go home,” Lillard said after the game. “It was about two minutes left, I think there was a dead ball, and I huddled the guys up and said, ‘Are you ready to go home? If we don’t finish this out, that’s where we’re going to be headed.’ That’s the situation for us and every other team. This is it.”

The Blazers’ high-scoring backcourt of Lillard and C.J. McCollum combined for 59 points on 21-of-42 shooting, creating enough offense to pull away in the closing minutes of a game they controlled but never truly put away until late.

It all starts with Lillard, whose performance in the playoffs has been the subject of much scrutiny since his electric showing in 2014’s first-round series against the Houston Rockets, the last time the Blazers advanced past the first round.

“The start he got us off to, I think it lifted everybody up,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “Because he didn’t shoot the ball well in the first two games and the fact that he got us going just encouraged everybody like, ‘We’re …

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