Philadelphia 76ers can make statement by keeping Damian Lillard in check

The Philadelphia 76ers will take on Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers during a tough matchup on Sunday.

To say the Philadelphia 76ers have struggled to defend guards in recent weeks when looking at some of their performances would be a huge understatement, whether it was Kyrie Irving on Christmas Day or simply Spencer Dinwiddie back in the middle of December.

When seeing how the Sixers face a tough matchup Sunday night against a top team in the Western Conference in the Portland Trail Blazers, one can only imagine the kind of game Damian Lillard could be in for.

As bad as it sounds, no matter how hard Philadelphia tries to defend Lillard on Sunday, there’s a good chance the star guard is going to have find a way to make an impact one way or another, whether it’s putting up a ton of points or simply coming through on the defensive end.

However, just because the Sixers have struggled to defend the guard position in recent weeks doesn’t necessarily mean Lillard is guaranteed to have a stellar game against Brett Brown’s squad.

If anything, Brown will look at this situation as an opportunity for Philadelphia to make a serious statement when it comes to their recent struggles at defending the guard position, although it will be far from easy.

There’s a reason why Lillard is viewed as one of the top guards in the league when seeing how he’s coming off another solid outing against the Golden State Warriors in which he dropped 40 points on the defending champions.

Not to mention, with Lillard averaging just over 27 points per game heading into Sunday’s contest to go along with 5.8 assists, all signs point to the Trail Blazers being a top contender in the Western Conference playoffs once again come spring time.

But before jumping that far ahead, the Sixers will just worry about Sunday night when it comes to keeping Lillard in check. And who knows, maybe Philadelphia will catch a break since this will be a back-to-back night for Portland, meaning Lillard could still be recovering from his 40-point outing on Saturday.

This may not seem like the best way to approach the situation, but when looking at some of the performances throughout December in struggling to defend opposing guards, the Sixers will take anything they can get when it comes to keeping Lillard in check.