TUALATIN — As

navigated around the perimeter pick and roll, he sailed past a backpedaling defender and sprinted toward the rim for what he thought would be a wide open layup. But as he approached the hoop, the lane clogged and that wide open layup devolved into a disaster.

Big bodies surrounded him. Long arms suffocated him. An easy scoring chance sabotaged him.

By the time Lillard elevated to complete his driving layup, he never stood a chance as Jonas Valanciunas emphatically blocked his shot.

Moments like this, which came in the second quarter of the

’ victory over the Toronto Raptors Monday night, have become increasingly more common for the point guard who has been the

. As more teams scrutinize Lillard’s game and more scouting reports start to circulate around the NBA, the book on defending Lillard is starting to collect chapters.

The most recent — and successful — tactic is for defenses to try everything to take away Lillard’s deadly three-point shooting and force him toward a crowded key, where a host of giants is awaiting to block or alter layup attempts and force challenging looks.

The next step in Lillard’s development is to enhance and strengthen his midrange game to counter this tactic.

“Once I get that down,” Lillard said, “it will help solve a lot of problems.”

At Weber State, his range was so deep, his pick-and-roll game so advanced, he had two tantalizing options: he could shoot over the top of anyone or breeze by the best of defenders and finish at the rim with little resistance. But the NBA is not the Big Sky.

Defenses make adjustments. Imposing athletes fill 15-man rosters. Player’s tendencies are exposed.

So Lillard is moving to the next phase of his evolution, diving head first into perfecting pull-up jumpers, running floaters and a host of midrange dribbling techniques to take advantage of the wide open spot on the court that stretches 5-to 18-feet away from the basket. During individual practice drills, during his pregame shooting routine — even during video study — Lillard has been physically and mentally changing his mindset to focus midrange.

“I think there are different forms of midrange,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “You can come off one dribble for a jump shot, for an 18-footer. You can hesitate and (take) two dribbles to get in the paint for a runner or a floater. And then obviously, you can get to the rim. So it’s a process and it’s not going to happen over night. He knows that. He’s already doing some things that he wasn’t doing a month ago.”

It’s almost second nature for Lillard to scoot around a pick-and-roll, digest that a beefy, slower big man is all that separates him from a layup, and charge ahead full-steam. He’s wired to think that’s an advantage. So part of the process is changing his mindset to slow his pace, survey his options and process that a midrange jumper or driving floater is viable.

“I’m capable of making those shots,” Lillard said. “It’s just a matter of me shooting them.”

His foray into featuring them has been hit and miss.

, Lillard shredded the Pacers’ defense with 23 points and six assists on 9-of-15 shooting. Most of his damage came through the midrange game as he made all five of his jumpers inside the three-point arc. He attempted five threes — no defense will force him to abandon one of his best weapons — but instead of sprinting to the basket off of every pick and roll, he mixed in pull-up jumpers and step-back shots.

But two games later,

, Lillard seemed more determined to drive to the hoop as he logged one of his worst NBA performances: nine points on 2-of-12 shooting. Lillard had six challenging layup attempts, with defenders blanketing him, and he made just one. He was blocked twice.

As Lillard works to think “midrange” his studying extends beyond the court into the video room. He’s watched film of many of the NBA’s best point guards and evaluated their midrange tendencies: Steve Nash’s ability to keep a dribble alive on the perimeter without charging into the paint; Tony Parker’s driving floater; Chris Paul’s use of dribble hesitation and change of speed; and Derrick Rose’s combination of pace, pull-up game and explosiveness.

More than any other player, Lillard identifies with Rose’s skill-set, demeanor and ability.

“I’ll get on youtube and watch Derrick Rose,” Lillard said. “He gets a head of steam and he comes to a two-foot jump shot and just raises up and shoots a floater. Or he’ll drive in, stop and shoot a step-back jumper. So I think it’ll be more of that (midrange) stuff for me than Tony Parker or some of those other guys.”

He’s been a maestro in the pick-and-roll. He has been lethal from three-point range. He leads all rookies in scoring (18.4 points per game) and three-pointers made (47). Now the focus is on developing a midrange game to match.

“He has such a quick burst that it’s hard to decelerate once you make that strong thrust to the rim,” Stotts said. “So it’s developing midrange, but also it’s about a change of speed. He’s hitting the 15-footer. It’s easy to pump fake, take a dribble and shot the jump shot. I think he’s very comfortable with that. Things change once you’re making the drive and part of that is change of speed, change of direction, on the drive.

“I think that just takes time. It takes repetition and feel. It’s one thing to practice it, it’s another thing to do it at full speed and make a split-second decision on it. Again, like everything else, he’ll figure it out. He’s got a lot of basketball ahead of him and he knows that’s something he has to get a better feel for.”

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