There are stars that does not need to be told what they need to do but against the Philadelphia Eagles, Doc Rivers felt he needed to do that on Damian Lillard.
The Milwaukee Bucks came into the game with the news of Giannis Antetokounmpo needing to rest until after the All-Star weekend. That is 31.8 points per game, 12 rebounds, and around six assists gone for them.
Good thing, Lillard was woken up by Rivers.
The nine-time All-Star scored 43 points and provided eight assists. It was his first 40-point game this season.
Rivers went back to the words he gave to Lillard before tip-off before praising his starting guard.
“I told Dame that he needs to be an aggressive scorer and an aggressive playmaker and that’s a hard thing to do,” Rivers said as quoted by reporter Eric Nehm.
“And I thought he did that tonight. I thought his downhill attacks to create other buckets were great and then that led him to his shooting.”
Gary Trent Jr. was among the constant recipients of Lillard’s passes, scoring 23 points, seven out of 15 from the three point line.
Damian Lillard acknowledging Doc Rivers words
Lillard is a de facto leader for the Bucks without Giannis.
Rivers had to remind him and Lillard suggests those words from his coach is among the reasons why he popped off in the win.
“That was something that I kind of understood already knowing that Giannis wasn’t going to be on the floor, but him saying it to me, I guess it kind of made something go off in my head, like I have to – he just kind of brought it back to the forefront, I guess, right before the tip. But I think he was spot on. That’s the way it has to be.”
He scored at least 20 points in eight of his last nine games. His playmaking also improved massively since the start of the season as he and the Greek Freak take turns in setting their teammates up.
Milwaukee is going to need more of this version of Lillard with Antetokounmpo out of the line-up.
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