Things got a little too real in Indianapolis on Saturday when Bucks star Damian Lillard was asked to recreate his iconic walk-off three-pointer against the OKC Thunder. After begging reporters to move on from the moment, Lillard bricked the three before hilariously admitting, “I ain’t got it no more” to the camera.
“Why y’all wanna be living in the past,” joked Lillard. “We can’t be living in the past… at some point, we have to let this go… I ain’t got it no more!”
Lillard was all smiles on the court and he was saying and doing all the right things for the media. Lillard, an 8x All-Star, will make his first start in the main event tomorrow, where he will join his Bucks teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo. He will also be a participant in the three-point contest tonight where he will look to defend his title from last year.
After 11 years in Portland, Lillard forced his way out this summer and landed with the Bucks in a blockbuster trade that involved veteran NBA champion Jrue Holiday. In Milwaukee, Damian was supposed to form the best one-two punch in the league with Giannis by his side but their play hasn’t come close to reaching championship-level standards.
In fact, Lillard’s status as a starter in the All-Star game this year has been a big debate in the NBA community as many feel he didn’t deserve to make it over Knicks guard Jalen Brunson. Despite Dame’s commitment to winning and the Bucks’ impressive win-loss record, his opening tenure with the Bucks has been nothing short of underwhelming, and his statement about “not having it” right now might be closer to the truth than anyone in Milwaukee would like to admit.
A Rough Start For The New-Look Bucks
At the All-Star break, the Bucks are 3rd in the East with a 35-21 record. While they are just 2.5 games back from the Cavaliers, it’s a worse position than they were in just a few months ago, when they were sitting comfortably below the Celtics as the second-best team in the Conference.
This season, besides the massive adjustment of replacing Jrue Holiday with Damian Lillard, the Bucks are also having to address what pushed them out of last season’s playoffs and we’ve seen the frustration boil over several times throughout the course of the season.
Arguably the biggest red flag was the firing of Adrian Griffin in the middle of the season. The Bucks were second in the East when Griffin was let go and it exposed a number of concerning problems within the organization. Now, under new coach Doc Rivers, the Bucks haven’t fared much better and there are already some doubts that he is the right choice for this team.
More than anyone, it’s Damian Lillard who is at the heart of the problems for the Bucks this season. With the Trail Blazers, he was a top-10 player in the game and arguably the best perimeter shooter out of anyone not named Stephen Curry.
With the Bucks, Lillard has been a shell of himself with averages of 24.6 points, 6.7 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game on just 42.3% shooting through the first 51 games. Unless he can go back to his Portland form, the Bucks might be cooked as far as competing for a title this season, and Lillard’s recent comment about “not having it” will become a fan-favorite meme for years to come.
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