Damian Lillard Meets the Moment

Damian Lillard did not disappoint in his Bucks playoff debut, and propelled Milwaukee to a comfortable Game 1 win over Indiana.

The sleeping giant awoke early in the Milwaukee Bucks’ series opening win over the Indiana Pacers Sunday evening.

Damian Lillard took full control of his return to the playoff stage by scoring more points than any Bucks player has done for a half in franchise history and propelling Milwaukee to a 109-94 victory. His 35 points all came in the first two quarters, which would ring alarm bells in any other context other than a comfortable win, as it turned out.

However, Lillard set the tone early with his scoring assault on Indy’s slapstick first half defense. In turn, he delivered a statement for why he relished the opportunity to play for a contender rather than having nothing else to do but go to Coachella this time last year.

It wasn’t just the manner in which Lillard became a human flamethrower Sunday, and quickly warmed to the playoff atmosphere that he had longed for after a two-year hiatus. It was the fact that the normally calm and collected Lillard did it with some spunk, some attitude against a Pacers team that showed its collective playoff inexperience early in Game 1. He walked his walk, and talked his talk while spraying in shots from all over halfcourt.

It hasn’t been a secret that Lillard’s first year in Milwaukee hasn’t been as seamless as we all hoped it would be when that Woj Bomb hit in late September and on the eve of the Bucks’ training camp. Lillard has had to adapt to new surroundings, a new team, new coaches, and new teammates, the least of which has seen a core group of players play alongside each other for many seasons, and all the way to a championship.

Finding his comfort in a co-starring role hasn’t been easy, especially after a career year in his last season in Portland. He has to find his new normal, all under a microscope that has heightened the pressure to win, and most of all, to be happy with what he asked for after a long, drawn-out exit with the only team and environment he has known in the NBA.

The times in which he has tapped into “Portland” Dame throughout the season is what Bucks fans have clung to all through the ups and downs. Sure, those instances have come fewer and far between than anyone would have liked - Dame included - but there was no denying that Lillard has had that in him at times. Whether his body would hold up in order for him to show that at this point in the year, well, that was a different story entirely.

In the end, there were no worries about Lillard and the many ailments that limited him to one practice as the Bucks prepared for Indiana throughout the week. All while the Bucks prepared to be without superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo while he continues to rehab his calf strain suffered in the last week of the regular season.

The questions the Bucks faced going into Sunday were many. Some were based on their health, their recent run of performance in the final weeks of the season, or the fact that the Pacers largely ran through the Bucks in their five regular season matchups. In one half, Lillard eased the pressure by meeting the urgency of the moment, all by playing his game. With no Antetokounmpo, Lillard knew that by putting his own best foot forward, the Bucks’ would do so as a whole. There was no deferring. Just all gas, and no brakes.

To their credit, Indiana countered wonderfully with their defending of Lillard in the second half by pressuring him the length of the court relentlessly, and even denying him the ball on inbounds passes. He was held scoreless in the second half while taking five shots (0-of-1 from three). Despite a 14-point third quarter and seeing their lead shrink to 12 by the end of the frame, it was Khris Middleton who wound up with the keys to turn over the Bucks’ engine as Milwaukee eventually fended off the Pacers’ second half surge.

Lillard’s stellar first half forced the Pacers to dial up the pressure all the way to 11. That’s what great players do when their greatness shines as it did for Lillard in the first 24 minutes of Game 1’s win. Indiana certainly won’t look to dial it back now, especially after seeing how they quieted Lillard in the second half. Finding that balance between scoring at will and being held scoreless is the starting point to how the Bucks and Lillard will adjust to that full-court pressure and the multiple bodies thrown his way

If anything, though, that serves as a microcosm for the kind of year Lillard has experienced overall. He has stared down pressure from the moment he arrived to Milwaukee, and considerably much more as the Bucks have traveled through their many trials and tribulations this year.

In the end, Lillard delivered the tone-setting performance the Bucks needed to truly kickstart this playoff run in the face of great expectations. In his words, “this is what y’all brought him here for.”