Milwaukee Bucks fans will have to wait a little bit longer before they witness a trademark Damian Lillard performance now that he’s with his new team. Some supporters were hoping that this would be the case on Tuesday as Dame suited up for his second preseason appearance for the Bucks.
Lillard fell way short of expectations against a hungry Oklahoma City Thunder side, though, as Milwaukee suffered a deflating 124-101 blowout loss.
Milwaukee Bucks HC Adrian Griffin Reacts to Loss
For his part, however, Milwaukee head coach Adrian Griffin has opted to take a glass-half-full approach in terms of assessing the loss. Instead of focusing on what went wrong for his team, the rookie coach pointed out the silver lining of their defeat:
“There was a lot of good you can take away from tonight as well. There was a couple times they kept throwing haymakers at us and we could’ve folded early,” Griffin said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We couldn’t sustain it at the end, but I like how we continued to fight, even Dame. He didn’t shoot it particularly well but he was working really hard on the defensive end. So was Giannis. There was a lot of good to take away from this game.”
Griffin did not deny the fact that Lillard had an off night in this one. After all, even his coach had to acknowledge this fact after Dame went 2-of-11 from the field for five points.
Nevertheless, much like the rest of us, Griffin remains confident that Lillard is going to get out of his funk eventually. When he does, the rest of the NBA better be ready.
Bucks Took a Lot Out of Recent Road Trip
Milwaukee went 1-2 in their recent road trip, which also included a loss against the Memphis Grizzlies on October 10 and a win against the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday. Apart from the actual outcome of the games, however, Griffin highlighted the benefits of this recent run in terms of how it got the squad closer together:
“Very productive. We got some great practices, high-energy practices, guys really bought in, super competitive, so I’ve been overall pleased with the road trip,” Griffin said. “We got to get most of our guys on the floor together and try to build some chemistry. It’s step by step. It’s a process.”
The Bucks return to action on Friday for a rematch against the Grizzlies in what will be their final preseason game.
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