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Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard is one of the NBA's best playoff performers, with many series-clinching buzzer-beaters under his belt. However, even he couldn't help but feel intimidated by the home crowd at Oracle Arena during the peak of the Golden State Warriors dynasty. Like other teams, nobody wanted to face the Warriors in the playoffs from 2015 to 2019, because they seemed invincible. With the raucous crowd giving them energy, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson could dig the team out of any hole or bury their opponents in a deeper one.
During his appearance in Jeff Teague's Club 520 podcast, Lillard shared some insights on his playoff battles with the prime Warriors.
“We'd be up nine and there would be five minutes left in the third quarter, we go into the fourth quarter down eight. It happens fast. They hit one three, you hear the crowd, see everybody stand up,” Lillard said.
About the Oracle crowd, he added, “You just looking around like, ‘Damn, it feels like we down 20.' They come back, hit another one… That's the only crowd I've played against at Oracle, where we could be winning and it felt like the game was slipping away. That's how crazy it was in there. Steph hit a three, Klay hit a three, timeout. That walk back to the bench was like, ‘Damn.'”
Dame Time pre-Bucks
While Lillard might say all that, he also was no slouch in the postseason. In 13 playoff games against the Splash Brothers, he averaged 27.6 points, 6.5 assists, and 4.5 rebounds. However, he had only ever won a single game against them, proof of the Warriors' dominance in the mid-2010s.
“Golden State just tough because playing them in the playoffs,” Dame continued. “We played them my fourth year in the second round…we were up double digits in every game. We lost 4-1, but we could have beaten them 4-1.”
After all those battles, though, time marches on, and Damian Lillard is now with the Bucks, and the Warriors are without Klay Thompson. Call it a twist of fate, but Lillard has the best chance of winning an NBA title in his entire career, now that he has NBA champions Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton on his side, especially in a relatively weaker Eastern conference.
On the other hand, the Warriors dynasty is most likely over. They've just lost the play-in to the Sacramento Kings, and then they've split the Splash Brothers. Likewise, Steph Curry isn't getting any younger. Moreover, the team has failed to bring in Lauri Markkanen because they refused to part with role players like Brandin Podziemski, in what is to most fans an act of front office malpractice.
Sports dynasties don't last forever and they often end horribly, but it was just Damian Lillard's luck that he ran into the prime Warriors in the playoffs year after year.
