While the Milwaukee Bucks could leave Boston feeling good about themselves despite losing 122-119 to the Celtics, All-Star guard Damian Lillard said he would have nothing of it. The team wanted to win regardless of the absence of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who missed the game with hamstring soreness.
No moral victories
While it cannot be denied that Giannis’ presence and significant numbers would have greatly impacted the game’s outcome, Lillard said the team isn’t making any excuses. The team focused solely on winning and wasn’t taking any consolation in a close defeat.
“There’s no moral victories or nothing like that. We wanted to win the game regardless of who is on the floor because we think we got a good enough team regardless, as we’ve shown,” Lillard said.
“We’ve been saying it’s about the journey and us pushing towards the team we want to become and at the right time of the season and this is part of that.”
Lillard scored 32 points on an efficient 11-of-21 clip. He also made six triples, including one that brought the Bucks to within four, 116-112, with a minute left. However, Lillard missed a tough layup attempt with 14 seconds remaining that would have trimmed the deficit to two.
Take a by-committee approach
Lillard added that they have grown accustomed to stepping up when a key guy is out. Khris Middleton missed 16 straight games due to an ankle sprain, missing February before returning last Sunday.
“Obviously, playing 16 games without Khris we had to continue to find a way and lean on guys to step up and kind of fill that hole collectively, and they did. And now playing without our best player, it’s the same,” Lillard emphasized.
“We gotta have the same mentality, we gotta be confident, and we gotta look around the room and see we got a lot of depth, we got experience, we got guys that can get a lot done. And that’s been our mentality.”
Bobby Portis tried his best to fill the gap left by Giannis’ absence. He scored 24 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.
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