Barely more than a week after C.J. McCollum made history by scoring 50 points in three quarters of play, Damian Lillard tried his best to outdo his backcourt partner. The lack of a late-game collapse, thankfully, is the only thing that prevented him from doing it.

The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Sacramento Kings 118-100 on Friday night, earning their second victory in just over a day in the wake of a winless three-game road trip. Lillard, of course, was the story for Portland, scoring 50 points, dishing six assists and swiping three steals in only 29 minutes of play. He shot 16-of-26 from the field, 8-of-13 from 3-point range and 10-of-10 from the free throw line. For awhile, however, it seemed as if one of the best efforts of Lillard’s career would be wasted.

The Blazers were listless on defense in the first half. On far too many occasions did the Kings’ smalls crease the paint after using ball screens, taking full advantage of Portland’s guards trailing a step or two behind the play – whether they were scoring themselves or creating opportunities for others with misses at the rim or kick-outs to the perimeter. Bogdan Bogdanovic was especially effective in ball-screen action. His length and patience as a playmaker belies his NBA experience, and is a forceful reminder of his starring career in Europe before coming stateside. Bogdanovic had 10 points in the first quarter alone.

Fortunately for Portland, though, it was able to take a 33-31 leading heading into the second quarter despite a lack of assertiveness defensively. Why? The singular dominance of Lillard and scorching hot team-wide 3-point shooting. The Blazers’ franchise player scored 14 points in the opening stanza, hitting three of his team’s six triples. Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu accounted for two of those remaining three long-range jumpers, including one where the former found the latter with a cross-court bullet to the corner. When Harkless and Aminu are making floor plays like guards, Portland is extra tough to deal with offensively.

That goes double for when Lillard has it going. After needing 22 shots to score 18 points against the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night, the Blazers’ All-Star scored 28 points on 11 shots in the first half alone, less than 24 hours later. Lillard scored from everywhere, but did most of his damage from beyond the arc. Case in point: His two pull-up 3-pointers from just inside Sacramento’s new halfcourt logo.

Dame from the lion logo pic.twitter.com/RnRT607j4l

— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) February 10, 2018

Despite surrendering a whopping 32 points in the paint, including 10 points to both Willie Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufos, and eight offensive rebounds, the Blazers went into intermission with a 10-point lead. The halftime box score was both a testament to Lillard’s dominance and the lack of support from his teammates: Harkless, in his third consecutive start, was Portland’s second-leading scorer in the first half with seven points.

Lillard picked up the second half where he off the first. He scored the Blazers’ first five points of the third quarter, via a quick catch-and-shoot triple from the right wing and an uncontested layup after splitting a high ball screen. When Lillard briefly went quiet, however, the Kings took advantage, going on a 10-2 run midway through the third quarter to cut Portland’s once-comfortable lead to 75-74. The home team’s momentum only lasted so long, though. Lillard made sure of that.

He scored 15 of the Blazers’ points in an 17-0 run that spanned the last four minutes and 13 seconds of the third quarter. Lillard didn’t just do it on offense, either. He followed up a layup past Zach Randolph to stymie a Sacramento run by ripping the ball from De’Aaron Fox on a drive, then found C.J. McCollum for an easy score of his own on the ensuing possession. After torching the Kings’ bigs again and again on the perimeter, Lillard got to 50 points by the end of the third quarter with a contested 3-pointer that was emblematic of the shot-making show he put on Friday night.

RESPECT! Dame has dropped a 50 spot #ripcity https://t.co/Q7dncn6uxC pic.twitter.com/jt7ie2Lvrm

— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) February 10, 2018

Suddenly up 92-74 heading into the fourth quarter, Lillard, on the bench, finally got some help from his teammates – one in particular, actually.

As the Kings threatened with triple after triple, closing to 101-88 with six minutes and 15 seconds remaining, Harkless responded like he did one night earlier. First was a backdoor, and-1 layup off a dime from Jusuf Nurkic. Next was a confident catch-and-shoot triple from the left wing, followed by a soaring defensive rebound. Once Lillard, still waiting at the scorer’s table, was set to come back in 3:44 left on the game clock, Portland was up 110-94 – an advantage that made Terry Stotts feel confident about ending his star’s night early.

The Blazers weren’t very good on Friday night. The Kings faced little resistance offensively until the fourth quarter, both at the point of attack on the perimeter and in the physical throes of the paint. If process really matters more than results, Stotts probably isn’t happy leaving Sacramento.

But when the result is Lillard lighting the scoreboard aflame in a double-digit road win, on the second half of a back-to-back, who really cares about the process?