Bucks’ Damian Lillard: Doc Rivers Is Running Plays For Me I Used With Blazers

After the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Los Angeles Clippers, Bucks point guard Damian Lillard told NBA reporters that his head coach, Doc Rivers, is running plays for him that he used with the Portland Trail Blazers. 

Lillard is averaging 22.2 points since Rivers replaced Adrian Griffin. 

Since arriving in Milwaukee, Doc Rivers has been running more sets that Damian Lillard utilized in Portland for him.

Dame: "So when he [Doc] came in, he was just like, "You guys don't run this? You guys don't run that? Like, this is stuff we hated to guard against you." pic.twitter.com/SOKAgZrPtQ

— Gabe Stoltz (@Stoltzy3) March 5, 2024

Lillard went off for 41 points against the Clippers while shooting 12-of-22 from the field and 4-of-9 from beyond the arc. The Bucks improved to 41-21 on the season and 9-7 under Rivers. 

In his first season with the Bucks, Lillard is averaging 24.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 6.7 assists while shooting 42.3% from the floor, 34.7% from 3 and 92.6% from the free-throw line. 

The Bucks played without Giannis Antetokounmpo versus the Clippers, so the offense ran through Lillard. 

“It was my typical experience, I guess, for my career up until this point where I’m coming out, I’m attacking, kind of getting what I want to get early in the game and their adjustment is to run guys at me or trap or send a double team,” Lillard said, via The Athletic. “And it was familiar. So, sometimes I attacked it and applied pressure to the double team, so they didn’t think that they were just taking me out of the game.

“And then they would overreact. Sometimes, it would be a third guy coming into the paint. And then other times, I would act like I was going to attack and just make them get more aggressive and pull them out of the play and then throw it back and try to take advantage of the four-on-three. And that was that was pretty much all I did. The game kind of slowed down for me because they got aggressive. I know that that’s when you got to just kind of be a decoy and trust the next play.”

The Bucks look like legitimate title contenders right now. It will be fascinating to see how far the team goes in the 2024 NBA playoffs.