Love him or hate him, when ESPN's Stephen A. Smith speaks, it grabs your attention.

On the Monday morning edition of First Take, Smith gave Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard a full minute of praise during a conversation about the Golden State Warriors' loss at Moda Center Friday night.

Lillard scored a career-high 51 points on 18 of 28 shooting, including nine three pointers, while recording a career-high six steals in the win over the defending NBA champs. The point guard followed that up with 30 points -- highlighted by a one-man 12-0 run in the third quarter -- on Sunday to help the Blazers over the Utah Jazz, becoming the first Portland player in 25 years to score 30-plus points in four straight games.

Check out the video of Smith talking about Lillard below.