In the waining seconds of close games, Damian Lillard has a habit of crafting little narratives in his head about how the final moments of the game are going to play out. Those attempts at trying to will his thoughts into existence often include the other team turning the ball over and always end with Lillard hitting a shot to win the game. It’s basically the NBA equivalent of the mock buzzer-beater routines (“Three... two... one!”) that play out thousands of times a day on basketball courts all around the world.
So when CJ McCollum forced a Tyrese Halliburton turnover that was corralled and laid up by Lillard to cut what was a 18-point lead down to one with 11.