DAMIAN LILLARD couldn’t save the Portland Trail Blazers this time.

Lillard, who has two playoff series game-winners to his name, failed to connect on a series-saving attempt in overtime of Game 4 of the Western Conference finals. His fading attempt from the right corner sailed wide at the buzzer in a devastating 119-117 defeat.

Game, set, series: Warriors, making them the first NBA team to advance to a fifth straight Finals since the Boston Celtics of the 1950s and ’60s. They completed the sweep without Kevin Durant (calf strain), Andre Iguodala (same) and DeMarcus Cousins (torn quad). As ever, they had all they needed in Stephen Curry (game-high 37 points), Draymond Green (another triple-double) and Klay Thompson, whose defense on Lillard down the stretch proved the difference.

“Five straight Finals hasn’t been done since Bill Russell’s Celtics, and it hasn’t been done for a reason,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters in his postgame press conference. “It’s really, really difficult, so I just can’t say enough about the competitive desire of the group of players that we have and the culture that they’ve built together, playing together regardless of injury.”

The Blazers shot 61 percent from the field, 56 percent from 3-point range and got a career-high 25 points from Meyers Leonard in a 69-point first half, and they still only led by four. That’s how disheartening it can be to face the two-time defending champions, even undermanned. Still, the Blazers did not quit, not with Lillard at the helm of a team that had already overcome so much.

Lillard said before the game that he believed his Blazers had a chance to be the first team ever to come back from a 3-0 deficit in an NBA playoff series (against one of the greatest teams in league history, no less). He played like it, too, shaking off the rust of a 15-for-46 shooting effort through the first three games and playing through a rib injury to score 28 points on 24 shots.

It wasn’t enough. It never has been against these Warriors.

Lillard’s co-star, C.J. McCollum, also had his best game of the conference finals, adding 26 points on 22 shots after starting 23-of-62 in the series, and Leonard overshadowed them both. The 7-footer’s back-to-back 3’s pushed Portland’s lead to nine in the final minutes of the second quarter, and another 3 (his fifth) gave the Blazers a 69-57 edge 32 seconds before halftime.

The Warriors being the Warriors, regardless of who starts around Curry, Thompson (17 points) and Green (18 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists), never let the Blazers get too comfortable. An eight-point Curry flurry in 26 seconds — two 3’s around a questionable clear-path foul — cut Portland’s lead to four before the break.   (SD-Agencies)