The Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard made history on Sunday night, scoring 71 points to lift his team to a 131-114 victory over the Houston Rockets. Lillard achieved his career-high score while also setting a team record.
At 32 years of age, Lillard becomes the eighth player in NBA history to score 70 or more points in a single game as well as the oldest player to do so. In addition, he is the first player aged 30 or older to accomplish this feat.
“I enjoy those moments in the game when I’m just going after people,” Lillard said after the win, “when I’m in attack mode.” The point guard also scored 13 3-pointers off 22 attempts, thereby going just one shy of the NBA record set by the Golden State Warrior’s Klay Thompson in 2018.
By scoring 71 points, Lillard is tied with Elgin Baylor (1960), David Robinson (1994), and Donovan Mitchell (2023) fo the eighth-most points in a single NBA game in history. Wilt Chamberlain currently holds the record, scoring 100 points for Philadelphia against New York on March 2, 1962.
