Lillard perplexed by foul call that sealed Blazers' fate vs. Grizzlies

With the game locked at 86 apiece and just seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, all the Portland Trail Blazers needed was a defensive stop against the Memphis Grizzlies to secure overtime.

The Rip City squad never got that opportunity to win it in an extra period, though, as point guard Damian Lillard was whistled for a shooting foul with just half a second left on the clock, sending Toney Douglas to the charity stripe where he secured Memphis' 88-86 victory.

"It's a tough call, man," Lillard said afterwards, according to the Oregonian's Joe Freeman. "I think at that point in the game, there's some calls that you make and there's some basketball things that happen out there that you can't be as technical about. I knew how much time was on the clock. I know it was about four seconds when he was crossing half court. I knew he didn't have a lot of time. He went hard baseline and I was on top of it, I cut the move off.

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"He shoved me off. And when he pushed off, I knew they wouldn't make the call at that time in the game. When he pushed me off, I felt like his arm get caught in my jersey, because I tried to put my hands up because I felt like something got tangled up, like his arm got caught in my jersey. I think once that happened, that kind of threw his rhythm off, because his arm got caught in there. He went to raise up and because of that, we got tangled up a bit. I got off balance a little bit. I knew he had to raise up and shoot the ball, so on the way up, it was a little bit of contact. But it wasn't caused by me. I think with him pushing off and getting tangled up with me, that caused a little bit of contact. And I blocked the shot."

Lillard's biggest grievance is that the whistle was blown so late, and even though Portland's horrific 30.5 field-goal percentage played just as much a part in his team's demise, in a perfect world, five extra minutes would have been provided to let the Trail Blazers and Grizzlies settle their matchup properly sans controversy.

"Point five seconds left, that can't decide the game," Lillard added. "Obviously, I think we had plenty of opportunities to not let it come down to that. We didn't play our greatest offensive game. But on the last play like that, you've got to let use decide the game."

Lillard had 19 points, but only converted 6-of-18 shots on the night. He also chipped in three rebounds and two dimes in 36 minutes, as Portland dropped its second game in a row following a three-game winning streak.