The first-round series between the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder ultimately turned out to be more about Damian Lillard vs Russell Westbrook, as the two All Star point guards engaged in plenty of trash talk throughout the series. As we know, Lillard won the battle, and the war, as the Blazers eliminated OKC in five games.
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Following the series, Lillard took to instagram with what was clearly a parting shot at his counterpart. The post, which contained several images from Game 5, features the following quote from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War."
"It is the unemotional, reserved, calm, detached warrior who wins, not the hothead seeking vengeance and not the ambitious seeker of fortune."
Despite the on-court trash-talk and the jabs on social media, Lillard says he and Westbrook are "really cool off the court."
During an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show on Friday, Dame cleared the air.
"Now that the series is over, it was funny to me that people wanted to make it like such a negative thing between us. Me and Russ are really cool off of the court. But when we get on the court, I don’t expect anything else from him and he doesn’t expect anything else from me. There’s no dislike."
"I’m just telling you what the truth is. On the court, I’ll talk trash to him and he’ll talk trash to me. He rocked the baby and Dennis Schroder tapped his wrist [imitating Dame Time] and all of that stuff [but] that’s all trash talk; that’s not dislike. Everyone was trying to turn it into us not liking each other and all of that stuff when we’re actually cool. Now that the series is over, I’m just making that clear."
Check out his full comments in the video embedded below.
