The Blazers, up to fourth in the West after beating the Thunder last night game, has kept them afloat in the absence of C.

J McCollum.

Nurkic still out.

Eric, I know you're working on a big game story, so give us a little preview.

Tell us where you think Dame lies within the M V P conversation right now, too.

I definitely think he's in the conversation.

There's no denying that, you know, you see what he's been doing this season.

He's been He's been Dame Lillard.

You know, that's that's what we've become accustomed to.

The latest example.

Last night.

Another example of game time.

He's in the conversation.

I think LeBron James is still at the top.

My personal opinion.

Nicola Yokich.

You know you have Joel and be those are some of the names, but dames should be mentioned in that conversation.

Put some respect on his name like Birdman E think his mentality was a little different, you know, coming into this season, he trained as a boxer.

I don't know if many people know that it's not just a social media thing.

Shameless plug that's the story that I'm working on, but he's trained as a boxer.

He's really he's in contact with Andre Ward.

He's in contact with Terence Crawford.

He's in contact with these great boxers and he trained up to 5 to 6 days a week, not only entering this season but going into the bubble.

When you saw that scoring average go up because that aggressing is up from him training as a fighter, you saying that mentality?

So I think that's really helped him this year, and he should be in that M V P conversation, for sure.

Oh, he definitely is.

He's top five in my book, and I mean, literally, You could make a case and put him number one, especially with C.

J.

Ben out Turkish Ben out and the way that he's been carrying this team, we don't never hear Dane Dollar complaining about nothing.

He goes out there and delivering.

He delivers in great fashion from time to time again, and I tell you that the start of the season and no disrespect to Steph Curry.

But when I talked about the best point guard in the game today, I look at Daniel a little bit because not only is he giving you 29 to 30 point tonight, he's also giving you around about 7 7.5 8 cents a night also, and he's carrying this franchise.

His partner in crime has been out for almost a month now, and it has been no slippage.

So Dane Dills, Odein Dollar Dane Time should be top five in the M V P Conversation e Hey, what bottom line, then?

Both you guys are totally right.

The guy does his job as a superstar.

He don't care who's on the court with him.

He don't care if he's got the best players in the role players.

This guy comes out night in and night out, and he performs as a superstar would no matter what the conditions.

And that is what I love about him.

And let's just get this on the record.

Out of all of the M V P candidates we just named, is there any one guy that s'more clutch, then dame Dollar?

That is the big thing.

I want to pose to the group because this dude hits big shots all the time.

It's just so normal when he gets the ball at the end of the clock or the end of the game.

We just expect that damn dollar is gonna hit that shot.

And that's a testament to his greatness and being able to focus in that moment.

And so I think that's what makes him different.

And I just love watching him play.

I'm a fan of his.

I think he's a class act and he's really playing at a high level.

Absolutely.

And you can find out where Damian Lillard ranks in the clutch.

That's for the MBA, what his boxing routine is like all from reading Eric Story.

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