It’s hardly a coincidence that Milwaukee Bucks superstars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard have started gelling like they have of late now that Doc Rivers is sitting at the helm. On Sunday against the Los Angeles Clippers, Giannis and Dame combined for 69 points as they showed the entre basketball world what they’re truly capable of as a duo.
Surely, Coach Doc deserves at least some credit for this recent surge.
Damian Lillard Vocal on Milwaukee Bucks Coach Doc Rivers’ Role in Developing Partnership
Lillard went off against the Clippers for a game-high 35 points on 11-of-19 shooting with seven triples. He also added seven rebounds and 11 assists to cap off another excellent performance.
Dame himself has acknowledged that his recent success has had a lot to do with getting on the same page with Giannis. According to the eight-time All-Star, Rivers has played an integral role in making sure Lillard’s partnership with Antetokounmpo is able to reach its full potential:
“I think it’s reached the point where we’re playing a game, but when it’s time to consider the next action, we’re doing the next action with each other in mind,” Lillard said, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “We’ve laughed about it in practice. The team, sometimes they’ll laugh at shootaround, Doc will put us on one side of the floor and put everybody else on the other side of the floor.
“And he’ll be like, ‘All right, Giannis, set the screen … throw it back … now dribble it back to Dame … Dame, throw it back.’ And we’re just kind of like going back and forth with each other for 15 seconds and then he’ll be like, ‘All right, somebody shoot.’ And then we shoot and everybody starts laughing because he’s like, ‘Y’all have to play off each other. You gotta play together.’
“He’s kind of like scripting us playing off of each other. And I think because he’s done it, you know, so many times in practice and shootaround. It went from a joke to now when those situations come, like that last one, Giannis went to the wing and I just took off running towards him.”
Rivers knew coming in that one of the biggest tasks in front of him was to get his two superstars on the same wavelength. They are still a work-in-progress, but there’s no denying that they’ve taken significant strides in the right direction.
Giannis Echoes Lillard’s Thoughts
Giannis pretty much had the same message about Rivers’ role in building synergy between himself and Lillard. Antetokounmpo revealed just how much work they’ve been doing behind the scenes:
“We work on it now,” he said. “Before, I think we thought it’s going to be, (Dame) comes out of the pick and roll. ‘Boom. I hit Giannis. Giannis is going to do his thing.’ If Giannis is not there, I’m going to shoot it. Now we work on it.
“I think we are more patient … But again, we don’t just talk about it only, we practice it. Like there’s been a lot of practices that me and Dame and the whole team, we do five on (zero) and we go like five straight minutes, just me and Dame going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I have something and then I go right back to him. Now, organically, you can see it coming out in the game, and I’m happy about that.”
At this point, you can’t deny that all the hard work is beginning to pay off.
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