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Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard was named the runaway MVP of the seeding games at the NBA bubble on Saturday.
Lillard was the unanimous winner, securing all 22 first-place votes for 110 points. Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker was a distant runner-up with 58 points. Joining Lillard and Booker on the All-Seeding Games first team were Indiana Pacers’ TJ Warren, Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic and James Harden of the Houston Rockets.
0:10 Lillard averaged an NBA-high 37.6 points and 9.6 assists in the seeding games, leading Portland to a 6-2 record. The Trail Blazers won their final three seeding games, with Lillard scoring 51 points against the Philadelphia 76ers, tying his franchise scoring record with 61 points against the Dallas Mavericks and finishing with 42 points and 12 assists in a victory over the Brooklyn Nets that clinched Portland’s spot in the Western Conference Play-In.
3:04 Lillard had 31 points and 10 assists on Saturday as the Trail Blazers defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 126-122 in the Play-In game. The win advanced the eighth-seeded Blazers into a first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers. That series starts in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
0:14 Composing the All-Seeding Games second team were Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, the LA Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, Brooklyn Nets’ Caris LeVert, Denver Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr and Dallas Mavericks forward Kristaps Porzingis.
Suns coach Monty Williams, who led the Suns to an 8-0 record – the NBA’s only unbeaten record – in the seeding games and the franchise’s first eight-game winning streak since the 2009-10 season, was selected as the Coach of the Seeding Games with 20 of 21 first-place votes and 103 points.
2:05 Portland’s Terry Stotts received the other first-place vote and finished in second place with 41 points, followed by Brooklyn’s Jacque Vaughn (18 points) in third place.
The All-Seeding teams and coach were selected by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters who have been on site covering the 2019-20 season restart at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando.
