Giannis Antetokounmpo went about his business yet again for the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday night. The former back-to-back NBA MVP went off for a game-high 26 points as he did all he could to carry the Bucks to a victory.
It just wasn’t enough, though, with the Atlanta Hawks securing a coast-to-coast victory to hand the Bucks their first loss of the new season.
Damian Lillard a No-Show for the Milwaukee Bucks
Lillard played his second game for Milwaukee on Sunday, but he did little to influence the game. The seven-time All-NBA guard finished with just six points on a miserable 2-of-12 from the field to go along with six turnovers in 29 minutes of play.
Dame went ice cold in this one after his scorching hot performance in his debut against the Philadelphia 76ers.
After the game, Giannis Antetokounmpo was asked to share his thoughts on his new superstar partner’s poor performance against the Hawks. As expected, the Bucks talisman gave Lillard his vote of confidence as Milwaukee looks to draw out more production from Dame moving forward.
“I know how good he is and at the end of the day, we need him to keep shooting, we need him to keep on being great,” Antetokounmpo said of Lillard, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We have him. Obviously we didn’t win the game but he’s our guy now and at the end of the day we want him to be extra aggressive.
“Every single night they’re going to double team him and he’s going to have to make the right play. He has a lot of things on his plate because he has to basically worry about he’s going to operate and how he’s gonna put us in the right position. Like, it’s a lot. But at the end of the day, we got him.”
Giannis also knew, however, that turnovers were what doomed the Bucks on Sunday night. Milwaukee turned the rock over 23 times in this one, with Lillard accounting for six of them.
“Obviously we wasn’t taking care of the ball like we want to,” Antetokounmpo said. “Offensively the ball wasn’t moving as much. We didn’t have a lot of space to operate. Sometimes if you don’t have the space to operate, you turn the ball over. We wasn’t efficient with what we were trying to accomplish from every offensive possession that we had and they took advantage of it.”
Dame Reacts
Lillard also knows where it went wrong for him. He’s been in this exact same situation many times throughout his career, and this certainly won’t be the last.
“I think I had my mind made up in some situations because I knew what type of coverage they were in,” Lillard said of his early turnovers. “I was trying to get it out quick to the next guy. Sometimes they weren’t open. Or, what I was expecting them to do based on the positioning of their guy and my guy, I thought the ball would get there but it didn’t. I was a step ahead of myself at times.”
Dame knows exactly what to correct. Don’t expect him to be this inefficient with the ball moving forward. He’s just too good to be this bad on a nightly basis.
For More Wisconsin Sports:
Follow me on Twitter at @PaoloSongcoNBA, and follow us @WiSportsHeroics. Also, check out our Merchandise Here! Get 20% off with the code “WSH.” You can also reach out to Paolo Songco via email at pao.songco@gmail.com. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest in ALL of Wisconsin sports, click here! Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks, Wisconsin Badgers.
