Even though he had a spectacular debut as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks, Damian Lillard had himself a rather rough night in the 127-110 loss against the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday.
Lillard finished Sunday’s contest with just six points, going 2-for-12 from the field, and an abysmal six turnovers. After scoring an impressive 39 points, setting a Bucks franchise record, Lillard had a lot of pressure on him going into the game against the Hawks. He said after the game that he’s still learning his teammates and how they work.
“We’re still learning each other,” Lillard said. “It’s a process of when I do have a start like this or have a game like this, how do I find it without holding onto the ball…That’s part of the process. It’s just our second game. We haven’t played a bunch of games together. I think as we go, we’ll figure that out and get better at it.”
Damian Lillard & Bucks Couldn’t Find Rhythm
It was a rough night for Milwaukee overall. They were without Khris Middleton as the team monitors his knee after an offseason procedure, and they never had a lead at any point in the game, and trailed as much as 31 points at one point in the game as Atlanta got their first win of the season.
In 79 straight games, Lillard had scored double digits, which was the second-longest of his career. His six point performance was the first one since 2021, and just his 16th in his entire career where he hadn’t scored double digits. But, his teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t worried about this one game, he knows how well Lillard plays.
“I know how good he is,” Antetokounmpo said. “At the end of the day, we need him to keep shooting, we need him to keep on being great. Obviously we didn’t win the game, but he’s our guy now.
“It’s game 2. It’s very, very early. We’re still figuring ourselves out. We’re figuring out what works. We’re figuring out what we’re good, what we are not good at.”
As they gear up for Monday’s game against the Miami Heat, Lillard said that these types of games happen, you just have to learn from them and move on to the next game.
The Heat eliminated Milwaukee in the playoffs last season in five games. They’re also the team that Lillard had initially requested a trade to when he made his trade request from Portland this summer. Lillard told ESPN that he’s not carrying anything extra heading into this matchup, saying that he’s happy in Milwaukee.
“I never played on their team,” Lillard said. “I mentioned that it was the destination for me when I asked to be traded last year, but I was traded her. I was excited to be here. I’m happy to be here. I fit in great here. For me, personally that was the end of it. I never thought about it like that.”
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