Damian Lillard drops season-high 60 points in Blazers' win over Jazz, falls just shy of career mark

Damian Lillard went off on Wednesday night at the Moda Center.

Lillard put up a season-high 60 points to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 134-124 win over the Utah Jazz after a wild scoring outburst in the third quarter. He narrowly missed his career best of 61 points, however, after a late 3-pointer fell short.

Lillard now has 15 50-point games in his career, which is the sixth most in league history. Wednesday also marked the fourth game where he’s scored 60 points or better, which is the third most in NBA history. It’s also the third 60-point game across the league this season, following 71 from the Cleveland Cavaliers' Donovan Mitchell and 60 from the Dallas Mavericks' Luka Doncic.

Lillard entered halftime with 26 points in what was a tight battle with the Jazz. It was the third quarter, however, that finally pushed the Trail Blazers ahead. Lillard put up 24 of his 60 points in that frame, and had 50 with a full minute left in the period. He closed out that scoring run while putting up 20 straight points for the Trail Blazers, too.

Now, it took Lillard a bit to add to that total. He sat the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, and then hit a fadeaway shot from the short corner near the halfway mark to get to 52. He slowly added to it over the coming minutes, and hit the 60-point mark with about 90 seconds left while at the free-throw line — which put Portland up by 14.

By then, with the game out of reach, Utah started pulling its starters. Lillard got one final look at a 3-pointer, which would have set his career high, but he was just off the mark.

Lillard finished 21-of-29 from the field and 9-of-15 from behind the arc. He added eight assists and seven rebounds.

Lauri Markkanen led the Jazz with 24 points and four rebounds, and Collin Sexton finished with 19 points off the bench. The Jazz have lost two of their last three, and are now 25-26 on the season.

Jerami Grant added 19 points and five rebounds for the Trail Blazers in the win, and Anfernee Simons finished with 16 points and nine rebounds. Jusuf Nurkic was the only other Portland player to score in double figures with his 10 points.