Damian Lillard is all business heading into the showdown against the team he was most linked to back in the offseason.
Before he was traded by the Portland Trail Blazers to the Milwaukee Bucks last September, Lillard was believed by many to be headed to the Miami Heat. That did not turn out to be the case, and he finds himself now trying to get ready for a game versus Jimmy Butler and company at home this Monday.
Lillard is no longer thinking about what could have been if he had been acquired by the Heat. Instead, his entire focus is on helping the Bucks score some measure of revenge against Miami, which eliminated them in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs.
“I'm not going into [the game vs. Miami] like ‘this the team that I was supposed to be playing for' or none of that. I know Jimmy, I know Bam, we're cool, but I play for the Bucks,” Lillard said, per ESPN.
It has been an adventure so far in the early goings of Lillard's tenure with the Bucks. After going off for 39 points in a 118-117 win over Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers in his Milwaukee debut, Lillard had a humbling experience in Sunday's 127-110 home loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
Damian Lillard went just 2-for-12 from the field and finished with only six points in the Hawks game. Needless to say, he is looking forward to recovering in a big way from that forgettable outing when the Bucks host the struggling Heat.
The Heat are 1-2 and will enter Monday's game on the heels of back-to-back losses to the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves.