The shot that is still talked about as a top moment in Portland sports legend.
Some shots win games. This one ended a rivalry, secured a legacy and gave Portland Trail Blazers fans something to mention years later.
On April 23, 2019, Damian Lillard hit a series-clinching, 37-foot fadeaway buzzer-beater over Paul George to eliminate the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series, sending the Trail Blazers to the second round with a 118-115 win.
It remains one of the signature moments in not only Lillard's career, but one of the signature moments in Portland sports history.
After C.J. McCollum picked up three early fouls, Lillard carried Portland's offense for the rest of the game, playing all 24 minutes in the first half and scoring 34 points in that span.
Portland trailed by 15 points with less than eight minutes to go, then clawed all the way back to force the final sequence.
With the score tied at 115 and the clock running out, Lillard calmly walked the ball up near the Blazers logo at halfcourt, sized up Paul George and pulled up from 37 feet rather than getting to the cup.
The shot went through, and Moda Center erupted.
Lillard turned to the Thunder bench, waved goodbye and got mobbed by his teammates.
By the end of the game, Lillard finished with 50 points — a Trail Blazers playoff record —and 10 three-pointers, the third-most in a single playoff game.
The moment carried extra weight because of the events leading up to it. George had called up Lillard's shot selection during the series, and Lillard had been jawing with Russell Westbrook all series.
Lillard's answer to the noise wasn't just a clutch performance; he delivered in the most emphatic way possible.
It also wasn't the first time Lillard has ended a team's season with a buzzer-beater. Five years earlier, in 2014, he'd hit the game-winning three-pointer to eliminate the Houston Rockets.
The OKC shot turned Lillard into one of the top clutch performers in NBA playoff history.
His shot still outlives the series. Nearly two years later, Lillard released a special Adidas shoe in a Thunder orange-and-blue colorway, with his 50-point, series-ending stat line printed on the sole.
It's the kind of pettiness that only works when the moment is that good.
For a Blazers fan base that spent years trying to find another signature playoff moment, Lillard set the standard. Whatever Portland's current roster accomplishes this season, it'll be measured, at least a tad, against a deep bomb answer to a question nobody in Oklahoma City wanted to ask.
