It was Damian Lillard who saved the day for the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night as they escaped with a tightly contested 141-135 victory against the league-worst Detroit Pistons.
Milwaukee needed every inch of Dame’s season-high 45-point performance to carve out a victory at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. This was easily one of Lillard’s best outings to date as a member of the Bucks.
Milwaukee Bucks Star Giannis Antetokounmpo Reacts to Damian Lillard’s Masterclass Vs. Pistons
After the game, Bucks talisman Giannis Antetokounmpo had to give Dame his flowers. Giannis wasn’t bad at all himself, flirting with another triple-double with 31 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists. However, even Antetokounmpo would concede that it was Lillard’s heroics that led to the victory.
“The moment Dame plays like that and is that assertive offensively with the ball, because he has the ball a majority of the time, the whole team follows,” Antetokounmpo said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “And, Dame is Dame. He’s going to have big quarters, he’s going to have big halves, he’s going to have big games. This was an example of it. We need him to keep on being aggressive, we need him to keep on leading this team. We need him to keep on making the right plays, we need him to keep on making shots because when he’s assertive and aggressive and he makes the right plays and makes shots, we are at our best.”
Lillard actually started off slow in this one, scoring just six points in the first quarter of play. That’s a slow start in Dame’s standards, and the fact that he went off for 30 points in the second and third quarters is a clear testament to this fact.
As Giannis said, this is exactly the type of aggressive mindset the Bucks need and expect from Dame on a nightly basis. Lillard isn’t going to score 40 in every game, but as long as he keeps his foot on the gas, Milwaukee is going to be just fine.
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