Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard played together on the Milwaukee Bucks for the first time in their preseason debut against the Lakers. Darvin Ham employed a stringent defensive strategy on Lillard, double-teaming the star and upsetting Giannis in the process.
“I’ve never seen someone double-teamed on the 1st play of the game. It was a surprise. It’s a preseason game. Not a playoff game, not a regular season game, not an in-season tournament game, or a play-in game. It was a preseason game and he was double-teamed. It’s insane.”
“I’ve never seen someone double teamed on the 1st play of the game. It was a surprise. It’s a preseason game. Not a playoff game, not a regular season game, not an in-season tournament game… It’s insane.”
Giannis on Damian Lillard being double-teamed 😂
(via @TomerAzarly) pic.twitter.com/dafPcxXSyl
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 16, 2023
Lillard was held to 3/10 shooting on the night in the face of the Lakers’ aggressive defensive schemes. It goes to show that teams are going to do everything they can to limit the production that Giannis and Lillard are capable of. Given the fact that both players averaged over 30 points last season, this will be prudent.
The Lakers took the loss tonight but are setting a tone in preseason. They’re ready to be the best defensive team in the NBA, carrying forward their success on that end from how they played defense in the playoffs. Giannis may not have appreciated seeing that, but the Lakers have gotten exactly the reaction they wanted. No easy buckets in LA LA Land this season.
Darvin Ham Issued A Warning To Other Teams About The Lillard-Antetokounmpo Duo
After losing to the Bucks 108-97 in this preseason game, Darvin Ham sent out a message he hopes the other 28 coaches in the NBA will hear.
“Best of luck to everyone else, the other 28 teams besides from ourselves that have to figure out how to stop that. I’m just happy we only have to see them twice in the regular season.”
The Lakers will thankfully be in the West but may have to reckon with the Bucks as a possible Finals opponent. The franchise won’t worry about that eventuality until they can see what their team is capable of when the season gets going.
Doubling Lillard tonight led to Antetokounmpo scoring an effortless 16 points in the game, so this may be a trade-off that teams in the NBA will have to choose on a nightly basis.
The Lakers chose to take away the shooting prowess of Lillard with aggressive perimeter defense, but it allowed Giannis to attack the rim at will and show his new and improved footwork.
Damian Lillard Thinks Playing With Giannis Is A Cheat Code
With the Lakers limiting how Lillard could impact the game, the All-NBA guard finally had a teammate who could take over when he couldn’t. Giannis had a fantastic game without being the focal point of the defense, which lives up to Lillard calling Giannis a cheat code last week.
“So, it’s just different because it was like, that’s a cheat code. To just be able to throw a ball up and have somebody be coordinated enough to hold his guy off, go up, catch it, come down on balance, go up and no dribble, no step and dunk it, you know, over people. So, I mean, it’s … it’s definitely different, man.”
The 16 points and eight rebounds Antetokounmpo put up today in just 15 minutes go to show why Lillard called him a cheat code. Even when Lillard couldn’t shoot better than 30% from the field, he hustled on defense to pull four steals during the game. This is a fearsome duo and the league has to be wary.
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