The Milwaukee Bucks carved out a win on Saturday night against the Detroit Pistons. The Bucks were still reeling from the embarrassment of their 40-point loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier in the week, and a loss to the league-worst Pistons would have been nothing short of catastrophic.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard both knew what had to be done, and they made sure that there wasn’t going to be any upset on Saturday night.
Bucks Star Damian Lillard Sounds Off on Partnership With Giannis Antetokounmpo
Together, the Bucks’ superstar duo torched the Pistons. Detroit had no answer to these two generational talents as they combined for a whopping 76 points on the evening. Had it not been for their heroics, it’s very much possible that the Pistons would have emerged victorious — especially because they shot an insane 56.8 percent clip from a distance.
After the game, Lillard spoke out about how he was on the same page with Antetokounmpo all game long. The way Detroit defended them resulted in the pair taking full advantage of the situation:
“When he starts to be aggressive you can hear every coach that we play against like ‘load up!’ and ‘wall up!’ and stuff like that,” Lillard said of Giannis, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “If they’re gonna do that, the better me and him get of him seeing them doing it and then him zipping it to me and me being able to shoot and then attack off them defending him that way, it’s just going to get more and more deadly and harder to deal with. That was kind of the, I guess, benefit for me was when I start to see him attack like that I’m looking for the space on the floor.”
Lillard’s message isn’t unique to the Pistons. This is what opposing teams will have to deal with on a nightly basis against one of the most explosive duos in the NBA today.
As Lillard implied in his statement above, he’s now getting more and more accustomed to playing alongside Giannis, and it is clear that the same can be said about Antetokounmpo. They’re now able to read opposing defenses in a more accurate way, thereby making their pairing all the more dangerous.
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