Different uniform. Same Dame. In his Bucks debut, Damian Lillard scores 39, including the final 11 to close out Philly.
MILWAUKEE – Sometimes opening games are lopsided or disappointing, not quite living up to the anticipation. Other times, as in Milwaukee’s 118-117 victory over Philadelphia at Fiserv Forum Thursday, the evening plays out as if scripted. Here are five takeaways from the matchup:
1. Reputations arrive quickly, but trust takes time
The NBA world knew as soon as the trade news dropped what it meant for Milwaukee to combine Giannis Antetokounmpo’s freakish dominance over the first 3 1/2 quarters with Damian Lillard’s clutch gene down the stretch. But throwing together two alpha performers isn’t a dynamic that just happens via proximity. It takes sacrifice, assertiveness, deference, encouragement and more.
All of which the Bucks’ resident franchise player and his new Top 75 teammate are offering to make this work.
Shortly after Lillard scored 39 points, the former Portland Trail Blazers point guard recalled the start of training camp, when he and Antetokounmpo locked into a conversation so intense it pushed his physical past midnight.
What. A. Debut.
🎰: @paysbig pic.twitter.com/Skxwu6pdRP
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) October 27, 2023
“One of the things he kept saying was, ‘I’m gonna do what I do, you have to do what you do. You close out games,’” Lillard said. “Even on the bench, toward the end of the game, they was like, ‘Dame, finish ‘em. Close it out!’
“All the way to the last play where I got fouled and went to the free-throw line. I was just reading him like, ‘What you want to do?’ He was like, ‘Come get the ball.’ He wanted me to make that final decision.”
2. Less Dame early means better Dame late
Over the final 5:32 of the fourth quarter, Antetokounmpo and Lillard scored all the Bucks’ points. Lillard closed like Mariano Rivera, getting the final 11. He played a team-high 37:13 but said afterward it wasn’t the sort of grinding he had done so often for the Trail Blazers, when so much weighed on him.
“Just the fact that I didn’t have to be so responsible for everything,” Lillard said. “Typically … I’ve got to be calling the play, I’ve got to be calling out everything that’s happening. As soon as the game started, Khris [Middleton] was coming up to me, just kind of directing me, ‘Hey, do this.’ Brook [Lopez] is directing me. Everybody’s talking, everybody has experience.”
That freed up energy and what Lillard called “mind space” in his game. “It’s much heavier than people watching the game would ever know, being a point guard and always having to pay attention to everything.
“I noticed that, hey, this is going to help me be stronger for complete games, instead of wearing down sometimes.”
3. No Harden, no problem for Sixers
The James Harden cloud — the ball-dominating scorer who no longer wants to be with the Sixers and was told to stay home from their season-opening, two-game trip — still hangs over the team. But he wasn’t missed Thursday, regardless of the outcome.
Philadelphia had four players score at least 20 points, led by elusive and quick Tyrese Maxey’s 31. The fourth-year guard tormented Milwaukee repeatedly, catching the ball in motion and attacking inside or pulling up for threes. Kelly Oubre Jr., a bargain addition, scored 27 of the 32 points from the Sixers’ reserves.
The team’s faster pace under new coach Nick Nurse frankly would get bogged down by Harden’s yo-yoing of the ball. Even Antetokounmpo commented on the Eastern Conference rivals’ freshness.
Kenny Smith says the 76ers or James Harden need a 'fire extinguisher' to tamp down the embers from their strained relationship.
“It was a different look to Philadelphia than I’ve been used to,” he said. “They were more aggressive defensively. Showed way more crowds, stopping the pick-and-roll, showing more help in the post. They were different than they were last year, so that was a surprise.”
4. It was mentor vs. mentee on the sideline
Nurse was working his first official game as Sixers coach. Adrian Griffin was doing the same with Milwaukee. But the two were together for five seasons in Toronto, Griffin a valued member of Nurse’s staff from 2018-23.
It was Nurse, by the way, who flipped the coaching duties to Griffin one night in August 2020, down in the Orlando bubble after that season resumed, just to give the former player and longtime assistant some game experience.
“I’ve always thought, whether it was in the G League or here, part of my job was to develop coaches,” Nurse said. “Move them along and get them to reach the goals they’re trying to reach in their careers.
“I feel you need to experience as much as you can. I felt that was a decent time to give him that experience.”
Said Griffin: “The way I honor him is to come out ready, prepared. Because that’s who he is. I wouldn’t be here without Coach Nurse.”
5. A rough night for Kareem
The Bucks’ first superstar, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, lost a couple of his milestones in team history Thursday. Antetokounmpo made 10 of his 22 shots, with the last several catching and passing Abdul-Jabbar for the most in franchise history. He now has 5,905 in 10-plus seasons, three more than Abdul-Jabbar got in six Milwaukee seasons.
Lillard’s 39 points set the high mark for the most points by a Bucks player in his debut game. He topped Terry Cummings’ 34 in 1984 and, yes, Abdul-Jabbar’s 29 in 1969.
So it was a good day for one guy — Antetokounmpo — who just re-upped a new contract extension to spend another four or five years in town and a second — Lillard — who says he’s thrilled to be chasing his championship dream in Milwaukee. And a not-so-good day for the fellow who couldn’t wait to leave for Los Angeles back in 1975.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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