Damian Lillard had a very busy Saturday night, but it was only a moderately successful one. Of course, just being invited to participate so often is a pretty huge accomplishment, so cut him some slack.
Let's start with the positive - Lillard retained his Skills Challenge title. With a new, team-oriented format, Lillard teamed with Trey Burke to win the event by 0.1 seconds over Victor Oladipo and Michael Carter-Williams in the final.
Next, Lillard looked to shoot the lights out in the 3-Point Contest. While he managed the opening round's third best score with 18 points, he failed to make the finals. Marco Belinelli would win in the end, defeating Bradley Beal in a tiebreaker after they tied in the championship round.
Finally, Lillard's West team was skunked in the bizarrely restructured Slam Dunk Contest. While he was able to pull off a really strong Freestyle Round dunk, he was eliminated by Terrence Ross in the first dunk-off.
Oh yeah, Lillard was in action on Friday, too, participating in the Rising Stars Challenge. The Portland Trail Blazers sophomore was on the winning side with Team Hill, scoring 13 points with five rebounds and five assists in 30 minutes of action.
Lillard will round out his busy weekend with an appearance in the All-Star Game on Sunday.
