Things have really turned around in Milwaukee after a forgettable start by head coach Doc Rivers and Damian Lillard is feeling right at home, since Doc is now running plays he used with his former team the Blazers.
Lillard spoke about his development under Doc after the Bucks’ 113-106 victory over the Clippers on Monday.
“It’s helped a lot. For a significant part of the year, it was just trying to find my way,” Lillard said, via Bucks beat reporter Gabe Stoltz. “Trying to find my spaces where I would have opportunity. And I just think because I’ve played against Doc so many times in the West and he had to scout against me…so when he 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.’ And he just slowly started to put some of those actions in.
“You know, I think it’s helped me settle in even more, especially playing with some of the guys on this team that can shoot the ball and having a guy like Giannis and the dunker behind the defense sometimes is like just stuff that I’ve always run and situations I’ve always been in should be in even harder to deal with now with the players that I’m playing with.”
Lillard notched 41 points against the Clippers while shooting 12-22 from the field and 4-9 from beyond the arc.
His running mate Giannis Antetokounmpo was out, so Lillard had no problem running the show.
The Bucks are now 41-21 on the season and have gone 9-7 under Rivers.
Milwaukee are definitely firmly back in the championship conversation after winning their last six straight games.
It will be interesting to see how the rest of their season and the postseason progresses under Rivers.
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