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It was an electric NBA All-Star weekend for Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard who not only won the three-point contest in back-to-back years, but was awarded MVP for the game Sunday night. Captain of the Eastern Conference team in Bucks teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo was in awe of Lillard's performance according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
“I’m like, ‘Dang, that’s my teammate there,'” Antetokounmpo said. “I’m happy that he’s on my side, and I’m happy what he’s capable of doing on the court.”
While the Bucks are currently struggling as they are 3-7 since hiring Doc Rivers as their head coach, Antetokounmpo is still grateful for the team he's on and especially that Lillard is his teammate. He would further say that the goal for Milwaukee and himself is to “keep enjoying the game.”
“We’ve just got to stay healthy, keep enjoying the game. Keep on getting together, getting closer,” Antetokounmpo said. “Build good habits as a team in the last 26 games that we have, and hopefully, when it matters most, we can gain some edge. He can make tough shots like that, and I can do the rest to try to help us win. It’s nice to have him on our side.”
Lillard in the same category as Michael Jordan after All-Star weekend
In the All-Star game, Lillard scored a team-high 39 points while hitting 11 of his 23 shot attempts from three-point range. He was the first player since Chicago Bulls legend and arguably the greatest of all time in Michael Jordan in 1988 to win the three-point contest and then win the All-Star game MVP the next night, an honor that Lillard considers a “major accomplishment.”
“Any time you’re mentioned in the same category as Mike, it’s an honor, and it’s a major accomplishment, even if it’s All-Star Weekend,” Lillard said. “If it was that simple, more people would have done it since 1988. So, that’s a major compliment for me to be mentioned in the same conversation as far as that.”
Even though Lillard has been in the league for more than 10 seasons, Sunday night was the first time in his career where he actually started an All-Star game. That fueled him going into this exhibition, saying he was “not going to be casual and cool about it.”
“I did come into the weekend, when I knew I was going to do the 3-point (contest), I was like I’m going to try to win. I’m not going to be casual and cool about it. I’m going to try to win again,” Lillard said. “And I’m going to come into the All-Star Game, my first start, I know I’m going to be on the floor a lot. I’m a vet in the game at this point. Why not go and try to get an MVP? Since I’ve been here enough. I saw the ball go in, and I started to do that.”
Lillard says All-Star weekend was “helpful”
While there is a constant conversation about how the All-Star game is not as competitive as it used to be back in the day, Lillard found the weekend to be “helpful.” He was saying it was beneficial to be with his teammate and head coach in Antetokounmpo and Rivers as now they will share their “experience away from this when we get around other groups.”
“When you go somewhere outside of your team with a teammate, you usually naturally turn to each other more, just a lot of conversation,” Lillard said via The Athletic. “We’re sharing our own experience away from this when we get around other groups. Our coach was the coach, so a lot of our staff was around the whole time.
“I think it was just a positive weekend for us because we just had a lot of interactions,” Lillard continued. “We were able to have conversations about where our team has been lately and what we want to do, how we can help each other better. When you can break away from not only the season and have All-Star break, but also break away from the team and us be able to just be man-to-man and just bond like that, it’s always helpful.”
Now that the All-Star weekend is in the rearview mirror, it's back to the regular season as the Bucks are 35-21 which puts them third in the East. Their next game will be against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, Feb. 23.