Damian Lillard Talks Trolling the Clippers on Twitter with Stephen A. Smith

Damian Lillard may have basked in the Los Angeles Clippers' failure Tuesday night, but he appears to be done fanning the flames of his rivalry with Patrick Beverley and Paul George.

Stephen A. Smith rolled out the red carpet for Lillard to get another jab in during a Thursday SportsCenter appearance, only for the Portland Trail Blazer to leave the emojis and trash talk to Twitter:

"I honestly thought the Clippers were gonna get it done. They're a great team. Once I saw they were down, I was like, 'Man this game is getting interesting.' So I just kind of tuned in at that point. I got a tweet from CJ, and he was like, 'You got some room in Cabo?' Just kind of throwing a joke out there ... and I just sent a tweet after that. I was just being funny, man."

While he gave a diplomatic answer, Lillard has to know this wasn't what fans wanted. A choice quote from Dame would have been the perfect capper to the loads of internet slander lobbed at the Clippers, who became the second team of the 2020 postseason to blow a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets.

Lillard and CJ McCollum helped shovel dirt on the Clippers' season with a series of jokes late into Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, joining in on what was a legendary stretch of NBA Twitter commentary.

Unfortunately for us all, it appears Lillard's demurring rather than stoking the flames. It's probably the mature thing to do but far less fun.