Damian Lillard had an emotional homecoming in Portland
Damian Lillard had an emotional homecoming on and off the court in Portland.
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Milwaukee Bucks lost their second straight under new head coach Doc Rivers, 119-116, in Damian Lillard’s homecoming against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night at the Moda Center.
Lillard spent 11 seasons with the Trail Blazers and is the team’s all-time leading scorer. The Bucks acquired him in a Sept. 27 trade that, ultimately, led former Bucks point guard Malcolm Brogdon to the Trail Blazers as they sent Jrue Holiday to Boston.
Brogdon played a key role in spoiling Lillard’s return to Portland, as he scored 14 points and handed out six assists. He also smartly fouled Giannis Antetokounmpo on the floor to prevent a dunk attempt that would have put the Bucks (32-16) up with under a minute to go, and also helped prevent Lillard from putting up a shot that could’ve put the Bucks ahead with under 10 seconds left. The Trail Blazers improved to 15-33.
Box score: Trail Blazers 119, Bucks 116
Trail Blazers prevent ‘Dame Time’
Lillard had a chance to put the Bucks ahead in the final seconds on a sideline out of bounds play that began with 17.6 seconds left. Lillard in-bounded to Brook Lopez and skated around two screens from his center and Antetokounmpo, but as he got some separation from Portland center Deandre Ayton, Brogdon decisively closed on him as he stepped back behind the three-point line.
Lillard fired the ball back to an open Lopez, who pump faked and put the ball down for a dribble to size up a deep three-pointer.
Rivers: We got what we were looking for: Dame. Giannis set a great pick. Dame came off, I thought it was gonna pull it, go a little quicker. Brook was wide. I loved the look back to Brook. Probably should’ve fired right back to Dame if he wasn’t going to take it. So we got what we were looking for, it just didn’t work out.
Lillard: I came back, I got the ball, I came off the screen. I looking to get downhill first because I didn’t want to just settle and I was able to get some space from Ayton and I kind of stepped back behind the three-point line. But my man was still chasing, and I knew he was going to try to get a rearview contest and maybe have a chance to block it. So I just welcomed it and I threw it back. And Brook was making that shot all night. When you get a quality shot from a good shooter, you make that play. So, I threw it back to him just because at that time I felt it was the right play. He just missed it.
Lillard: I thought I could’ve shot it. I probably could have shot it and got it off, but when I was stepping back I felt them both coming. I for sure could’ve go the shot off, but if his man is front of me and my man is right there chasing me on the side, I just was aware that he had to be wide open, so I just made a pass back to him.
As he reloaded, it appeared as if Brogdon had sunk off Lillard just enough to warrant a pass back, but Lopez stepped into a 30-footer. The shot missed short with eight seconds left.
Lopez: Obviously our multiple looks, we wanted to get Dame coming off initially and we had Giannis rolling. It came back to me and they closed hard, so I put it down and on my peripheral I thought Malcolm (Brogdon) was a bit more up on Dame then he really was. So, I just stepped into it and I took my shot.
Rivers: The look was for Dame, let me say that. He was coming off, we wanted him to take that or be aggressive. But Dame made the right play. That’s one of the things we’re talking about. If the guy’s wide open, throw it to him. I haven’t seen the film so I have to watch it, I thought Brook was open for the three and then he pumped faked. That’s probably when he should’ve got back off the ball.
Lopez: Oh, absolutely (I liked the look). Looking back at the film, obviously Dame was a bit more open than I thought he was. But I’m definitely confident in the shot for sure.
Fourth quarter turnovers change game
Milwaukee trailed, 96-91, after three quarters and then turned the ball over six straight times to open the fourth quarter as Portland stretched the lead to 101-91, and the Bucks didn’t make a shot until Lillard hit a three-pointer with 8 minutes 57 seconds to go.
“We gotta do a better job, just take care of the ball and getting a shot up,” Antetokounmpo said. “Those six possessions probably cost us the game. If we had scored in two of those possessions we may have won the game, who knows?”
It was a rough stretch similar to what the offense suffered in Monday night’s fourth quarter in a loss at Denver, as lost possessions mounted later in the game.
“You know, right now, so far in the two games that I’ve done we’ve had these two or three stretches in every game where we just have bad offensive possessions,” Rivers said. “And a lot of those bad offensive possessions are turnovers that lead to buckets. When you’re playing at a thin line the way we are right now, til we get our defense right and things like that, those change the game. I thought that was the biggest point in the game, those six possessions.”
The Bucks had just one turnover in the first half and 12 in the second, including a handful of offensive fouls.
The Bucks trimmed the lead down to 115-114 with 1:13 to go after back-to-back star plays by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lillard. Antetokounmpo blocked an Ayton dunk attempt from across the lane, eliciting memories of his block of Ayton in Game 5 of the 2021 NBA Finals. Lillard followed that with a double-clutch dunk.
Malik Beasley then forced a tough turnover and helped create another that led to a Lillard-to-Antetokounmpo lob that put the Bucks up 116-115 with 37 seconds left.
But Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons then hit a running, contested 10-foot floater in the lane with 17.6 seconds remaining to set up the anticipation of Lillard heroics.
Jerami Grant hit two free throws with 4.6 seconds left for the game’s final points.
Along with Brogdon, Portland had Simons (24), Ayton (20), Grant (18), Scoot Henderson (15) and Duop Reath (10) reach double figures in scoring.
Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 27 points and eight rebounds. Lillard (25), Khris Middleton (21), Lopez (19) and Bobby Portis (11) also reached double figures for Milwaukee.
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Damian Lillard scores 25 points in return to Portland
Lillard walked into the Moda Center off the Bucks’ team bus, camera lights illuminating his face and asked where the visitor’s locker room was.
He returned to the arena for the first time as a visiting player after having carved out a historic 11-year career as a member of the Trail Blazers, becoming the franchise’s all-time scoring and three-point leader. On a broader level, he helped change the way the game was played – namely from well beyond the three-point line – with Golden State’s Stephen Curry. And though Lillard was a seven-time all-star and all-NBA selection, he did not capture an MVP award or lead his team to an NBA Finals.
His Trail Blazers teams were competitive, though, with eight playoff trips and four series victories. They made one Western Conference finals, in 2019.
The Oakland native made Portland his home, during the season and after. He embraced the city as much as it embraced him – which had him happy to come back as a member of the Bucks. Even if he did acknowledge in a 20-minute pregame news conference the whole day was “weird.”
Even if the game itself was, well, just another game for him.
“It’s definitely something that I think is more media-driven, where it’s every time a player is on a new team and they come back it’s always a big thing,” he told the Journal Sentinel on Monday in Denver. “Especially star players. So I definitely think it’s more of a media-driven thing. The game is on TV, you know? So, it’s more about that.
“I had a great relationship with this city and this fan base. It’ll be fun to get back in the Moda Center and be in front of that crowd and just kind of have that experience, you know what I’m saying? It’ll be fun.”
Was it ever.
Lillard received a 1-minute, 6-second standing ovation when he was introduced. His teammates gave him the space to soak it in before surrounding him and going through their usual pregame dance. The Trail Blazers then played a tribute video at the first timeout, and the ovation during and after lasted over two minutes.
The organization then played another 2-minute video at the next timeout to highlight Lillard’s off-court impact, which also drew a standing ovation.
Even though Lillard acknowledged before the game there may have been some tension between him and the organization during the summer as they worked out a trade, his treatment and reception Wednesday shouldn’t have been a surprise because for him there were no true hard feelings.
“It’s not like they traded me and I didn’t know; it wasn’t a broken home,” Lillard said.
But in recent history, there has been mixed bag of reactions for star players in their first games back with a new team:
- Michael Jordan, unbelievably, admitted his nerves got the best of him in his first game in Chicago as a member of the Washington Wizards following a three-minute standing ovation during introductions on Jan. 19, 2002. He committed a career-high nine turnovers and missed 14 shots, but he scored 16 points and had 12 rebounds in a Washington victory.
- Los Angeles fans booed one of their own – Kobe Bryant – and roundly applauded Shaquille O’Neal in his return to play his first game against the Lakers on Dec. 26, 2004. At the time, fans felt Bryant forced the Lakers to trade the future Hall of Famer center. The pair had won three titles together. O’Neal had 24 points and 11 rebounds in a Miami win.
- Minnesotans gave an injured Kevin Garnett a loud ovation when his Boston team played in Minneapolis for the first time since he was traded to the Celtics on Feb. 8, 2008. He was applauded again the first time he played on his old home court the next season, scoring 17 points in a Boston win on Nov. 21, 2008. (Rivers was his coach, by the way).
- Allen Iverson kissed the center court 76ers logo and blew kisses to the fans in his return to Philadelphia on March 19, 2008, as he was given a standing ovation in his return as member of the Denver Nuggets. He scored 32 points but the 76ers won by three.
- LeBron James was booed in Cleveland on Dec. 2, 2010. And he scored 38 points in a Miami win in his first game back in his home state, and against his hometown – and former – team.
- Kevin Durant was booed and taunted in Oklahoma City on Feb. 11, 2017. And he scored 34 points in a Golden State win in his first game back against his former team.
Rivers said Wednesday night wasn’t totally the same as Garnett’s return to Minnesota, as he felt Garnett’s best days had passed. He also was coaching Patrick Ewing in Orlando when the Hall of Famer center returned to New York at the end of his career. This was different.
“You want him to enjoy that moment and then play really well,” Rivers said of Lillard. “That’s what you want. I can’t imagine how hard this must be to have focus. I really can’t.”
Rivers also said he’s experienced players trying too hard to create a memorable night, or their teammates break form and try to force feed the issue. But former teammate CJ McCollum believed there wasn’t going to be any motivation for Lillard to do that.
“I don’t think he’s at that point in his career anymore – big nights just come naturally,” said McCollum, who was given a 90-second standing ovation by the Portland crowd when he returned for the first time as a member of the New Orleans Pelicans last year. “It’ll be special for him to play there and I’m sure it means a lot to him. He’s going to want to play well because he’s going back to where it all started but I’m sure at the end of the day it’s another game that they want to win.”
There were no moments when it felt like Lillard or the Bucks played any differently – though he did attempt a pull-up 34-footer that caused a collective gasp among the Portland faithful. But it was a misfire.
He finished with 25 points on 9 of 23 shooting, including a 3-for-13 mark from behind the three-point line.
“More than anything it was just kind of draining, you know what I mean?” Lillard said after the game. “Just everything around it and what it was. I ain’t gonna say I’m happy that it’s over but I’m just like; just dealing with everything that came with it. I’ve been asked a million times ‘what has it been like being back in Portland?’ and ‘how do you feel?’ and all this stuff. But I really enjoyed being back but just the whole spectacle of it is just a little bit draining.”
He said it
“Awful.” – Doc Rivers on the Bucks defense to start the game, which saw the Trail Blazers shoot 55.6% overall and 62.5% from behind the three-point line in the first quarter.
Did you notice?
It was just the second game of Rivers’ tenure as head coach, but he clearly has wanted to see what the top nine players of the rotation look like playing together. Second-year forward MarJon Beauchamp and rookie Andre Jackson Jr., who had gotten sporadic minutes under former coach Adrian Griffin, did not get off the bench Monday or Wednesday night. Second-year shooting guard AJ Green had played less than those two, but he also did not see any court time.
Not only does Rivers need to see what his top nine veterans can do, but so does general manager Jon Horst as the Feb. 8 trade deadline looms.
5 numbers
- 2 Successful challenges by Portland head coach Chauncey Billups in the second half, the second of which prevented Lillard from shooting free throws with the Trail Blazers ahead 113-109 with 3:09 to go.
- 4 Rank in the NBA in merchandise sales for the Bucks. The organization was bolstered by top-ranked Antetokounmpo (No. 5) and Lillard (No. 10) jersey sales.
- 5 Missed free throws by the Bucks including a final attempt by Antetokounmpo in which he missed on purpose to try and get an offensive rebound.
- 15-2 Bucks’ record when Antetokounmpo and Lillard score at least 25 points each in the same game. Their only other loss was on Christmas Day when they each notched 32 points at New York.
- 40 Percent shooting on three-pointers by Lopez, making 4 of 10 attempts. The Bucks’ 7-foot center had gone 11-for-18 from deep his previous two games but he couldn’t quite find the range. He missed a 30-footer with a chance to put the Bucks ahead with 8 seconds left.