Damian Lillard’s up-and-down start for the Milwaukee Bucks took another dip on Wednesday night in a truly disappointing blowout loss against the Toronto Raptors. The Bucks just didn’t have it in this one, and the Raptors made them pay by handing Milwaukee their biggest loss of the season thus far, 130-111.
Milwaukee Bucks Star Damian Lillard Sounds Off on Another Loss
After the game, a disappointed Damian Lillard spoke to the press to discuss his team’s second blowout loss in four games. Dame acknowledges the fact that there are going to be some growing pains for this squad this season but at the same time, it’s still tough to watch your team get utterly dominated by your opponents:
“The hard part is just staying patient,” Lillard said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I think we’ve all been around long enough to understand it’s a process and it’s going to take time but I don’t think that makes it any easier. When it’s happening you’re kinda like man, I know I said it’s a process and I know it’s going to take time but we’re competitors and we’ve done this at a high level so we expect to get the kind of results that we put into it.”
Lillard had 15 points on Wednesday on just 4-of-9 shooting. He added two rebounds, six assists, and two turnovers in 31 minutes of action. Had it not been for his efficiency from the charity stripe (he went 6-of-7 from the line), it would have been another ugly outing for the seven-time All-Star.
A Dose of Reality
Lillard then went on to slap the Bucks with the harsh reality they’re facing amid all the pressure surrounding the squad. The 33-year-old admits that chemistry-wise, Milwaukee just isn’t where they want to be just yet:
“It’s going to look ugly sometimes and other times it’s going to look like the potential that it’s supposed to look like,” he continued. “We had solid, solid showing opening night and then we laid an egg kind of against Atlanta. Then we bounced back and tonight was the same thing. So I think you know you’re in that type of process when you have that type of inconsistency.”
“But none of us are looking at it like oh, it’s OK. Obviously it’s frustrating. We don’t want to have it but we’re still trying to learn each other, we’re still trying to learn a new staff and it’s one thing to understand it in walk-throughs and in practice but to go out there when another team is team is trying to disrupt it and to be able to make reads and understand within that is a different challenge.”
It’s so easy to overreact after watching Wednesday’s brutal loss. However, let’s all remind ourselves that we’re just four games in.
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