Dec 16, 2019; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) against the Phoenix Suns at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
The NBA apparently didn’t even wait for Damian Lillard to hit the showers after his career game on Sunday.
The Portland Trail Blazers star Lillard was a human missile launcher against the Houston Rockets, igniting for a career-high 71 points. Lillard needed only 38 shots to get there and hit 13 three-pointers (just one off Klay Thompson’s single-game record of 14) as Portland won 131-114.
When Lillard arrived in the locker room after the game, something was notable about his appearance — he had a Band-Aid on his arm because the league drew blood from him for a drug test following the final buzzer (per Blazers writer Sean Highkin).
Lillard was in disbelief about the test during his postgame press conference. He said it was the first time he had gotten a blood drug test in his career.
Dame said tonight was the first time he had been blood-draw drug-tested following a game in his entire career.
His full thoughts on it: pic.twitter.com/ZKu5vIKmrd
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) February 27, 2023
The 32-year-old Lillard is in his 12th season in the league and has played in 819 career games (regular season and playoffs). There is no way that drug test after Sunday’s game was a coincidence.
Lillard’s 71 was a Blazers franchise record. It was also tied for the eighth-highest individual scoring game in NBA history. Something about that was obviously suspicious to the league, and it was like déjà vu all over again after the last player to score 71 in a game got similar treatment as well.
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