This time a month ago, it seemed like Damian Lillard’s season might be over after he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his right calf. But after a remarkable recovery, Lillard was cleared to play and took the floor as a starter on Tuesday night as his Milwaukee Bucks took on the Indiana Pacers in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Lillard’s long-awaited return was a welcome sight for the Bucks, who looked overmatched without him in a 19-point loss in Game 1. But even the return of the nine-time All-Star to the lineup was not enough as the Bucks lost 123-115 to fall into an 0-2 hole in the series.
In Game 1, Giannis Antetokounmpo put up 36 points and 12 rebounds, but no one else scored more than 15 points and two starters went scoreless. On Tuesday, Lillard’s mere presence made a difference.
Just a few possessions into the game, Lillard created a wide open 3-pointer for Brook Lopez on a pick-and-pop because the Pacers sent two to the ball. All night long, the Pacers had to pay close attention to Lillard and pressured him all over the floor, which created space and opportunities for Antetokounmpo and the supporting cast.
Even though Lillard didn’t have a great game — 14 points and seven assists on 4 of 13 from the field — he made everything easier for the Bucks, and it’s no surprise their offense looked much better. After failing to crack 100 points in Game 1, the Bucks put up 115 in Game 2 while shooting 50.6% overall, including 40% from 3-point range.
Unfortunately for the Bucks, Lillard’s return doesn’t solve their biggest issue.
Bucks doomed again by lackluster defense
The Bucks just cannot keep anyone in front of them on the defensive end. The Pacers are a particularly bad matchup in that regard with their cadre of quick guards and desire to push the ball at every opportunity.
Even at his best, Lillard is not a high-level defensive player. In his first action in more than a month, he was completely off the pace. He was certainly not the Bucks’ only culprit on that side of the ball, but he had his fair share of rough moments on Tuesday.
After the game, Bucks coach Doc Rivers singled out his starters for being unable to provide enough resistance, particularly at the point of attack.
“Defensively, getting beat off the dribble,” Rivers said, when asked what that that unit’s biggest issue was. “And it’s everyone.”
Later in the press conference, Rivers doubled down.
“We didn’t contain the ball much at all tonight. Defensively, other than our start, it was our inability to contain the ball off the dribble,” Rivers said. “They ran, I want to say, after four timeouts, where the play was just to get it in and just attack. There was no play, because they believe they have guys who can beat our guys off the dribble. So we have to do a better job.”
Time and again, the Pacers were cruising into the paint to either score or create a wide-open shot.
Lillard, for his part, attributed the problem to poor communication.
“Tonight we pretty much switched everything, we had a lot of switching going on, and when you do that it requires a lot of communication,” Lillard said. “You get mismatches and you gotta be able to scram guys out and you gotta rotate and you gotta be aware, you gotta be communicating. It has to be all the time.
“If there’s a miscommunication, or two guys or one guy doesn’t say anything, and two people go with somebody cutting, you leave a guy on the perimeter for an open shot. When you switch a lot, it leaves a lot of room for those type of things to happen. I thought that was our main issue.”
That was certainly evident throughout the night. Here’s Lillard himself getting burned for an alley-oop because he wasn’t aware of where Obi Toppin was on a switch.
Lillard will have better shooting nights as the series goes along and he gets back into game shape after such a long layoff, and the Bucks will likely win a game or two behind their offense. But as Nico Harrison’s favorite cliché goes: defense wins championships.
The Bucks won’t win one this season, or even emerge from this series, because they aren’t good enough on that end of the floor, with or without Lillard.