The Blazers had gone 2-8 in their last 10 games before their matchup with the Jazz, and it was mainly due to the seven games absence of their franchise cornerstone, Damian Lillard.

On Sunday against the Pacers, the six-time All-NBA selection returned to the starting lineup to deliver a 21-point performance off five made three-pointers, to go along with five assists. Lillard’s return had his team clicking on all cylinders to mount a 16-point marginal triumph, and it left head coach Chauncey Billups impressed with No. 0’s performance after not playing since Nov. 19.

“He played well,” Billups said, per OregonLive. “He was pretty crisp for having sat out a lot of time. I know he was antsy to get back out there.”

Welcome back, @Dame_Lillard #RipCity pic.twitter.com/Gu5Cd7Xb4j

— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) December 5, 2022

The Blazers are now 8-4 with Lillard on the floor, but in their 12 games without him, the team has kept their competitive spirits high behind Anfernee Simmons and Jerami Grant.

On Saturday’s event, Simmons erupted for 45 points (15-25 from the field) and knocked down seven treys with two blocks at the defensive end. Grant didn’t hold back either, dropping 33 points and five assists. In a recent matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers, the duo combined for 69 points, and their best collaboration was at The Garden against the New York Knicks, both going over 38+ points.

With the return of their starting point guard, Simmons and Grant’s production was going to take a slight dip, but that didn’t stop Lillard from encouraging his teammates to get their buckets.

“Coming into the game, I’m telling Ant and Jerami, Be aggressive,” Lillard said. “Don’t let me stop you from being aggressive because I’m going to have the ball in my hands. I’m going to find opportunities to do what I do.”

Best plays from PDX. #RipCity pic.twitter.com/AJB2fCG8lc

— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) December 5, 2022

Grant acknowledges Lillard’s impact on the floor and said having their superstar back in the lineup “changes the whole flow of how” the Trail Blazers play.

“He changes the whole flow of how we play when he comes back,” said Grant. “We move the ball a lot more. The ball is moving around a lot. Getting a lot of open shots. It makes the game easier when he is with us.”

After a 10-4 start to the new season, the Trail Blazers have been set back due to a few injuries. However, the group has slowly bounced back due to their playstyle of playing collectively and trusting their top players to get the job done. Portland’s stock continues thanks to Simmons, Grant, and Lillard raising their ceiling and taking it upon themselves to make sure the Blazers climb up the playoff rankings.

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Last night in a contest against the Los Angeles Clippers, despite Simons scoring 34 points through three quarters and Portland holding an 18-point lead in the third, Simons and the rest of the Trail Blazers couldn’t hold on for the win. Simons finished the night with 37, but the Trail Blazers have lost seven of their last nine games and went 1-3 on a recent trip. 

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He went 1-8 in the fourth quarter, but Clippers guard Norman Powell caught fire with 22 fourth-quarter points. Jerami Grant fouled out with 32 points with 4:32 remaining in the game, his team nursing a five point lead. Simons struggled down the stretch and his team was outscored 15-4 for the remainder of the game.

Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups thinks Simons could have performed better. 

“It was tough,” Billups said. “They took away Ant with Jerami out. You have a lot of guys out there that are not really used to having the ball.”

Billups maintains that Simons should have been more aggressive and demanded the ball down the stretch, something Simons would learn in time. 

“That’s something that me and Ant will talk about. That’s a part of his development,” Billups said. “Ant is 22-years -old. We know that he’s a phenomenal talent, already. But he’s still got a little growing to do. We can’t act like Ant is 32 and Dame. We can’t act like that. He still has some developing to do.”

Simons reiterated some of the same points. 

“Getting the ball and demanding that attention, I think that’s what I should have been doing,” Simons said. “Obviously, they were denying me the ball everywhere around the court, especially in the second half. There were moments that I didn’t realize I should go get it a couple of times. Obviously, it’s a learning experience.”

If Simons is to continue his career season and steady the ship missing its captain, he’ll have to be more aggressive. And he knows it. He’s learning it in real-time. 

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So far, the Blazers point guard is having a breakout season, posting career-high numbers nearly across the board. Simons is shooting 39.0 percent from the three-point line while averaging a career-high 12.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.3 assists. Simmons is coming along as an x-factor for the Blazers, displaying dynamic offensive skills and flashes of an iso-threat with the ball.

“I really can’t take credit for how well I played tonight,” an emotional Simons said per CBS Sports. “I was just going out there and playing my game. I got a couple of shots to go in. Like I said, I really can’t take it today. Sadly, my grandpa died yesterday of cancer. It’s all him, honestly. I give credit to him. I dedicated this whole game to him. Like I said, I can’t take credit tonight. It was all him.”

With the win against Atlanta, Portland has snapped their four-game losing streak, advancing them to 14-22 this season. The Blazers are currently ranked 12th in the Western Conference and are still out of the final play-in spot by only one game. The Hawks are in a similar position at 16-20, ranked at 12th in the East and are on the outside looking in for Eastern Conference play-in spots.

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Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard will miss at least 10 days with lower abdominal tendinopathy, team says.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 1, 2021

Lillard’s abdominal injury has been lingering on and off for weeks, missing a November 14 game against the Denver Nuggets and Tuesday’s contest against the Blazers 110-92 win over the Detroit Pistons. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported back in August that Lillard played through the 2021 Tokyo Olympics with an abdominal injury. It has since hampered his production at the start of his 10th season with the Blazers.

Through 20 appearances this season, Lillard is averaging 21.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 7.8 assists in 35.7 minutes per game on 39.7 percent from the field and 30.2 percent from three-point territory.

In his absence, the Blazers will turn to their 2018 first-round pick Anfernee Simons and Dennis Smith Jr. Simons is averaging a career-high 12.5 points and 2.2 assists on 46.5 percent from the field and 38.8 percent from three on 23.6 minutes per game.

The Blazers’ next test without their star guard will be Thursday against the San Antonio Spurs.

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While Indiana Pacers guard Cassius Stanley wasted no time putting on a show with an explosive move that saw him go between-the-legs with the same leg he jumped off of, his first-round dunk only received a surprising score of 44.

After New York Knicks rookie forward Obi Toppin showed off his Amar’e Stoudemire-like hops with a two-handed reverse tomahawk that gave him a score of 48, Simons would follow Stanley’s dunk with a creative flush that saw him grab a ball from a mini hoop above the rim for a score of 44.

Stanley, possibly effected by his controversial first-round score, would perform a run-of-the-mill dunk in the second round that led to a score of 37 and virtually eliminated him from championship contention.

This would leave Toppin and Simons to battle for the Slam Dunk crown, with Toppin starting off the affair by taking performing a windmill dunk while jumping over teammate Julius Randle and his father. Missing his first attempt, Toppin would earn a 46 on his second attempt.

Simons would then proceed flight in a vintage Tracy McGrady jersey, paying homage to T-Mac’s popular dunk from the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest. An exhilarating 360-degree jam, it was undoubtedly his best dunk of the night and earned a deserving score of 49 from the judges.

In the final round of the Slam Dunk Contest, Toppin would break out a simple between-the-legs dunk that was outshone by a consistently creative Simons. On what was one of the most discussed dunks of the night, Simons would lob the ball to himself and appear to kiss the rim as he dunked.

Although ensuing replays showed that Simons didn’t in fact kiss the rim, his flair and showmanship was enough to get him a 3-2 edge in the judge’s final vote.

While the Slam Dunk Contest has consistently been maligned as stars opt not to take part in the once illustrious event and contestants find it increasingly difficult to be original, this particular Dunk Contest was notable because of this year’s judged. That being said, Simons earning the respect of former Slam Dunk champions like Dominique Wilkins, Josh Smith, Spud Webb, Dee Brown and Jason Richardson should be impressive from any perspective.

Following his win on Sunday, Simons would call the experience “surreal” and a “dream come true.”

Following the contest, the NBA announced that Simons, Toppin and Stanley had raised an additional $350,000 for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF). Slam Dunk Contest sponsor AT&T committed $100,000 to the TMCF’s COVID-19 HBCU Emergency Fund, which will help students that attend a Historically Black College or University or Predominately Black Institution.

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“Working with my trainer, especially the past couple of weeks, he’s been teaching me how to slow the game down, to be more efficient,” Simons explains. “I like how guys like CJ McCollum or Donovan Mitchell do that. They know when to slow the game down.”

All of which is an entirely logical thing for Simons to be thinking, especially right now. After wrapping up his prep basketball career at IMG Academy this spring, the Orlando native did what any elite prospect would at that time: He focused on getting ready for the next level. But for Simons—unlike the rest of the 2018 class—that didn’t necessarily mean big-time college ball. He actually graduated in 2017, then played a post-grad season at IMG, making him eligible to enter the 2018 draft. And in March, he confirmed he would do just that.

And there, of course, is the irony: A young man focused on slowing things down, even as he accelerates and blows right by one of the “expected” stops on the road to his NBA dream.

“Honestly, I’m just confident in myself,” Simons says. “Whatever team chooses me, I’m just going to try to get in there, learn and get better. I’m confident that I’ll be able to compete.”

He’s not the only one. Whatever skepticism might still exist in 2018 among certain so-called draft experts about a player skipping college for the League, most observers agree on Simons’ potential—he’s a consensus top-20 pick in most of the reputable mock drafts. A 6-3, 185-pound combo guard, he possesses an explosive and versatile offensive game, and he’s as comfortable getting to (and above) the rim as he is splashing from deep. He knows his strengths—and he knows who to share the credit with. “I’d say it’s my shooting and playmaking ability, and my IQ—that came from my dad,” he says. “He made me think about the game a lot more—to be instinctive, but at same time, think about it before it happens.”

It’s a balance the great ones are able to master, and Simons knows he has a long way to go. Which is only natural: Always young for his grade, he reclassified back a year in high school—a rarity among top players—and began to make up ground on his peers. Just three years ago, he left his original high school, Edgewater HS (FL), for powerhouse Montverde Academy, but struggled to get any run. He went back to Edgewater the following season, then on to IMG for that postgrad year. Both in the prep ranks and the summer circuit, he’s since showed that he has more than caught up with his peers.

Now he’s focused on that next, huge step. In addition to guys like McCollum and Mitchell—he counts Spida as a mentor and friend—Simons admires guys like Jamal Crawford and Dame Lillard, “guards who are able to score the ball and do other things, too.” A seemingly less likely inspiration is the guy who inspired his name: Simons’ parents were big Penny Hardaway fans, and Simons eventually become a close friend and teammate of Hardaway’s son, Jayden.

And if Simons can’t match the original Penny’s rare combo of size and skill, he’s confident in what he has—and what he can build from it. “I feel like I’m pretty decent at everything, but I know I’ve got to get better at everything, too—every day, inch by inch,” he says. “I try not to get too far ahead of myself, but I’m really focused.”

—

Ryan Jones is a Contributing Editor at SLAM. Follow him on Twitter at @thefarmerjones.

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Guard Anfernee Simons of IMG Academy is entering the NBA Draft, his agents Drew Rosenhaus and Bobby Petriella tell ESPN. Simons is No. 19 in ESPN’s most recent mock draft.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 22, 2018

“After discussing the matter with my parents, I have decided to forgo the opportunity to play in the NCAA and to instead enter the NBA draft,” Simons said. “I am very thankful for the support I received at IMG Academy and from the NCAA coaches who recruited me. I am ready and excited to pursue my dream of playing in the NBA.”

2018 Five-Star recruit Anfernee Simons will forgo college and has declared for the NBA draft. @AnferneeSimons pic.twitter.com/jd6UZzc3Yn

— SLAM HS Hoops (@SLAMonline_HS) March 22, 2018

Simons is one year removed from his high school graduation and will be turning 19 in June, making him draft eligible. He was being heavily recruited by Tennessee, NC State, Florida, South Carolina and other notable programs.

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