Lots more of the same in today's article.
https://theathletic.com/2593572/202...eeks-tips-from-title-winners-to-realize-goal/
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Behind the scenes, Lillard has been gathering intel on what goes into becoming a champion. He has talked to a championship coach. And he has sought out players who have won titles.
One of those players recently joined his team:
Norman Powell, a reserve on Toronto’s 2019 team that won the NBA title.
“He kept bringing it up, that I have a championship, and that I know what it takes,” Powell said. “And he just started talking about how badly he wants to win and bring one to Portland.”
So on the Blazers’ recent six-game trip, Lillard sidled next to Powell and began peppering him with questions. The first time happened during pregame warmups. Then after a different game, Lillard approached Powell in the locker room and began asking about the Raptors’ 2019 title run.
“I don’t know how detailed I want to get into it, because it was like a personal conversation,” Powell said. “But we had many conversations about playoff runs, and guys stepping up during runs, and different situations. And the first time we talked about it, it was more about the experience, like the parade and everything. He had a lot of different questions about that, the vibe of it.”
Said Lillard: “I asked him what I asked all people who had been a part of a title: What was the separator for that team to be able to make that run? What did it take? What was different in that run from a past run?”
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In Lillard’s eyes, if he were going to make his dream a reality, he needed more than his exceptional skill and his uncanny ability to come through in the clutch. His mind needed more information, more perspective. That’s why in the past three weeks he has sought out players and coaches — the names of which he wanted to keep private — to quiz them about their title experiences.
In the course of two conversations with Powell, three words stuck with Lillard.
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“A lot of what he said was pretty much stuff I had heard before, but there was one thing he said:
‘You gotta defend,’ ” Lillard recalled. “He was talking about how teams end up in the halfcourt in the playoffs, and you have to defend. And once you get your stops, then you have people on your team who can get you a basket when you need a basket. But when it comes down to it, you have to consistently defend.”
Lillard chuckles in retelling the story.
“I was like, ‘Man, that’s real simple … real simple,’ ” Lillard said. “But it’s hard to sustain the simple stuff because sometimes you take it for granted. And when I think about their run, I think about them getting stops. And when he said that to me, I was like, man … they were just coming up big time after time. And then Kawhi would hit a pullup. Kawhi would get fouled. (Pascal) Siakam would get to the rim. Kyle Lowry would hit a 3 … they had people who could make a play or hit shots, but they got stops. They defended. And they had really good team defense consistently. And it was like … it made perfect sense.”
On that trip, Lillard set a defensive tone through his actions. He asked to defend Indiana’s Malcolm Brogdon. He guarded Boston’s Jayson Tatum. As his defense intensified, so too did the defense of everyone else. The five-game losing streak and what looked like a spiraling season had righted itself. The Blazers head into the playoffs having won 10 of their final 12.
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“Some people might look at it like, ‘Oh they can’t do that’ or ‘They don’t have the team,’ ” Lillard said. “And regardless of what is the truth or not the truth, my mind is on the fact I think we can do it. If everybody thinks that and everybody believes that, that’s when it happens. That’s when it can be done.
“People who have won in the past, players and coaches I’ve spoken to over the last few weeks say the same thing: You can lead a team to get it done, but everybody has to believe it, and you really have to push that,” Lillard said. “That’s kind of like where my head is. I want it for the city, I want it for myself, I want it for the team … we’ve done everything else. We should be excited to be back in this playoff, or this tournament, to have a chance to win it again.”
