Damian Lillard and the Milwaukee Bucks fell flat again as the bow to the Memphis Grizzlies at home, 132-119.
Hero of the night for the visitors was Jaren Jackson Jr. who outscored everyone with his 37 points which also came with five rebounds, and two assists.
The latest defeat is the Bucks’ fourth in their last five? What could be ailing the team?
For Lillard, it is the absence of Bobby Portis who has missed five games so far due to personal reason.
Dame acknowledged they are struggling without their first back-up big man in the line-up.
“Sometimes they’re just going over the top of us,” the nine-time All-Star told reporters after the Sunday game
“That size has been to our advantage and that’s something that’s been taken away. Not having Bobby [Portis] on both ends of the floor, I think that’s been obviously something that we’ve struggled with.”
Portis is the sixth man for the Bucks and is averaging 13.4 points per game plus around eight rebounds. He is a reliever for either Giannis Antetokounmpo or Brook Lopez.
Until now, it is a mystery what those personal reasons that prevented him from joining the team. Some speculate he could get traded with his name on trade machines a lot.
Damian Lillard’s thoughts is same with Doc Rivers’
Antetokounmpo still produce his usual numbers but in the fourth quarter of the last two games, he went silent. Must be fatigue.
He reached the 30 point mark in the third quarter against San Antonio Spurs but only managed to add five more in the closing quarter.
Against the Grizzlies, he had to bleed for every point although he had seven assists.
Doc Rivers earlier spoke about how he is forced to extend the minutes of his big men to cope up with the absence of Portis.
“We miss Bobby. We miss his size. We’re not deep in that position,” Rivers said before their Friday loss to the Spurs.
“We have two 5s, one 4 and one of them out, it really stretches you. You’re forced to play small ball every night, and really just extending guys’ minutes that you don’t want to extend. That’s on top of just missing Bobby and everything he does for your team. So it’s a lot.”
Rivers might go to the same game plan as they have a shorter time to prepare to play the Oklahoma City Thunder on the second night of a back-to-back. Worse part of it is they are the ones who will visit OKC.
There is still no update when Portis will return.
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