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Charles Barkley has come out and said that Damian Lillard either needs to leave the Portland Trail Blazers or the franchise needs to get him some help to win. The 58-year-old NBA legend gave an example from his playing days and said that the team needs to rebuild to have any chance of winning the championship.
In their game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Damian Lillard scored 27 points, but his efforts were not enough to lead the team to a win. The 31-year-old faced a shooting slump in the first few games but is slowly picking up pace. However, the Trail Blazers have already lost six games this season and look like a team in trouble. While discussing the whole situation in Portland with the NBA on TNT team, Charles Barkley said:
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'I've been in the same boat before... they gotta break the team up and try something different. We've seen this movie a lot lately, I think like the last five years. He's gotta leave, or they gotta bring him in some help... I think Earnie, it's so hard man."
There was a lot of speculation in the offseason that Damian Lillard would leave the Portland Trail Blazers. However, the 31-year-old rubbished all of that and has said that his loyalties will remain with the franchise. If Lillard was to leave, the Blazers, he would be a big asset to any team in the league.
With the Trail Blazers constantly failing to give Dame any help, the player may someday decide to walk out and go to a team that gives him the resources to win. Speaking about the same, Shaquille O'Neal said:
"When you're playing for an organization and you ask, "Hey, I want this coach, I want that," and they keep denying you, at some point it's going to build to a little frustration. I'm not going to say he's not committed, we all know what type of player he is, but to me he doesn't look very happy."
Damian Lillard's 27 point performance not enough to prevent another loss for the Portland Trail Blazers
The Los Angeles Clippers came into the game high on confidence after securing four consecutive wins in their previous games. They started aggressively as they scored 33 points in the first quarter.
However, the Trail Blazers had a good second quarter and made things very interesting. Going into halftime, the Clippers led the game 56-55. However, with two more quarters to play and just one point separating the two, things could move anywhere from there.
Damian Lillard scored 27 points on the night on 47.8% shooting from the field. He shot 4-13 from three-point range to keep the Trail Blazers in the game. Another Portland player that had a good outing was Norman Powell. The 28-year-old scored 23 points and shot 5-6 from three-point range on the night.
The Trail Blazers tried their level best to take control of the game, but the Clippers had answers to everything the Trail Blazers threw at them. They put up a strong defensive showing in the second half, which helped them get to their fifth consecutive win of the season.
The Clippers got contributions from all of their players. A total of 6 players from their team scored 10 or more points in the game, which helped them succeed on the night.
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