Ex-Syracuse star Jerami Grant scores game-winner for Trail Blazers vs. Lakers

For the second consecutive game, Damian Lillard put the Portland Trail Blazers on his back by scoring 41 points.

And also, for the second consecutive game, a teammate scored the winning basket in the closing seconds.

Former Syracuse basketball star Jerami Grant’s driving layup with three seconds left gave the Blazers a 106-104 win Sunday afternoon against the Los Angles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena. The shot came two days after Anfernee Simons hit a running baby hook with seven seconds remaining in overtime to give Portland a 113-111 victory over Phoenix at the Moda Center.

With Simons, Lillard made the decision to pass the ball after drawing a double team. With Grant, the Lakers succeeded in denying Lillard the in-bounds pass, so Justise Winslow passed to Grant.

Both instances left Lillard pleased that teammates were able to hit clutch shots with games on the line.

“I’ve been saying it the last two games,” Lillard said during a post-game interview on Root Sports. “I know it’s early, but it’s just trust. They were denying me so hard. I had just hit a big shot. And he got it and they let him play in space.”

Grant’s game-winner came after Lillard hit a three with 12 seconds left to give the Blazers a 104-102 lead. It could have been the decisive shot, but on the next play, LeBron James took advantage of a defensive miscue and drove inside for an easy dunk to tie the game.

On Lillard’s three, the Lakers elected to play him one-on-one with Lonnie Walker IV. Lillard said he initially waited for a second defender to come at him as the Suns had done on Friday, prompting him to pass to Simons, who sank the winning shot.

In fact, Lillard said, he told Simons on Sunday that if a second defender came his way again, he wanted Simons to flash high so he would be in space. But a second defender never arrived. So, Lillard decided to work for a shot that he liked.

“I was able to get some space and get off the shot that I was comfortable with,” Lillard told reporters after Sunday’s game.

After James’ game-tying drive, the Blazers again looked to Lillard. But the Lakers and Juan Toscano-Anderson denied him the ball.

The Blazers’ plan was to run Lillard off a Grant screen so that he could receive the ball from Winslow on the right side. But guard Patrick Beverley, who was defending the in-bound pass, saw Lillard coming, backed up and helped defend him.

That led Winslow to pass to Grant, who James was guarding. Grant finished with 16 points and the Blazers improved to 3-0 on the young season.

After Lillard passed to Simons on Friday, Lillard said, he considered working his way back to his backcourt running mate to get the ball. But, ultimately, he decided to let Simons go to work.

On Sunday, Lillard said, the same thought flashed through his mind until he saw that Grant had good position and spacing.

“Once I saw the kind of conviction that he was jabbing and moving with, I was like, he didn’t look uncomfortable so I just kind of let him do what he did and he got a basket,” Lillard said.

Grant moved to his left, worked past James and attacked the lane. The 6-foot-11 Anthony Davis was waiting at the rim, but Grant floated by him and scored on a bank shot.

“And then it was just get one stop for the win,” Lillard said.

That stop came when James missed a long jumper over Lillard.

Blazers coach Chauncey Billups has made it clear since he took the job last year that he wanted a team with several players capable of hitting big shots and taking pressure off Lillard. So far, the Blazers’ three victories have included this, with the last two featuring game-winning shots in the final seconds.

“They took Dame away and again we had confidence in whoever’s on the floor,” Billups told reporters Sunday. “We run a play obviously for Dame. But Dame was not open. Boom, Jerami, you go make a play. And that was a man’s play that he made.”

— Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).

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