A lot of people think Dame is like Kobe or Harden or any number of guys who put up big numbers by taking lots of shots. They are wrong.
The Legend put up 39 points on 20 shots. Going 17 of 17 from the line. This type of efficiency is why Blazers fans know Lillard is a Legit Superstar and the rest of the league thinks he is “just” a good to great point guard.
Also, Dame scored the last 11 points of the game for the Bucks. That’s what we know of as “Dame Time”.
One of my big takeaways was that Dame wasn’t tired at the end of the game. Usually in Portland he was just gassed at the final buzzer because if he wasn’t running 110% there wasn’t a chance at a win.
It must be quite surreal for him to be open sometimes too! At the Blazers he was 100% the focus of the opposing team’s defense and he still put up big numbers. Seeing him open and not the core element of every single play made him so much more fun to watch, not to mention lethal. He even mentioned in the post game interview how nice it was that he wasn’t organizing the offense and defense all the time and has a team around him that takes care of a lot of things he was used to running in Portland.
I’m so happy for your team and I’ll be watching as many games as I can! Over here in Portland we’re in full rebuild mode so I’m going to follow the Bucks for the next few years.
Media talking heads sleeping on Lillard because of the pre season are only going to add to his competitiveness.
Even on his bad shooting nights he will still make an impact, and to see that with Middleton giannis and Lopez is going to be special. If he learns how to use that fourth quarter killer instinct to facilitate more once he has the other team off balanced, he will make Giannis the clear MVP for the next 3 seasons. He’s never really had a clear second option that he can trust that is capable of being hot when he’s hot. Cj and LaMarcus were great players but it was usually an either/or scenario not both players looking dominayton at the same time.