The Bucks and Lakers met up in a very exciting preseason game which saw the duo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard make their debut in a win. During the game, Giannis dunked on new Lakers’ signing Christian Wood, prompting the Lakers’ big man to say he has circled their first regular season matchup for his revenge.
“I love it. I’ll see him during the season just circled the game on my calendar.”
Wood had a nightmare performance in the preseason game against the Bucks, scoring just three points and shooting 1/6 from the field. He is still a below-average defender, showing in this game why his previous teams didn’t want him around for long. It’s a long season, so Wood will hope to rebound and be in good form when these teams meet in March 2024.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Can Dominate Alongside Damian Lillard
Giannis has previously declared that he doesn’t want to be the guy running the Bucks offense on every possession anymore. After leading the league in usage rate the last few seasons, Giannis is hoping getting Damian Lillard next to him could lead to the guard taking on primary ball-handling roles, leaving Giannis to dominate off-ball and defensively.
“For me, now, I’m 28. I’m not a kid no more. You cannot have — obviously, you have to have friendly competition within your team to try to push one another and to be great and be better prepared for the game — but this is not, in no shape or form, any competition between me and him, who’s going to have the ball more. He will have the ball more and I trust, I believe he’s going to find me and not just me, he’s going to find our teammates and put us in the right position.”
From a skill perspective, it makes no sense for Giannis to choose to handle the ball ahead of Lillard. When he still had Jrue Holiday as his point guard, it made sense, given Jrue’s offensive limitations. There are no offensive limitations for Lillard, and the Bucks will be hoping that leads to an even better version of Giannis, who can conserve more energy.
Darvin Ham Doesn’t Know How To Stop This Duo
Darvin Ham became the first NBA head coach who had to worry about the Dame and Giannis duo tearing his team to shreds in the first preseason game. The Lakers battled hard and lost by 11 points leading to Coach Ham issuing a statement after the game where he openly discussed how challenging it was to guard them.
“Best of luck to everyone else, the other 28 teams besides 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.”
Given both players are coming off seasons where they averaged over 30 points, expectations will be high. While we expect neither play to reach that mark again with the ball being shared between the two, both will still need to put up big numbers to remain in winning form over the regular season.
Giannis averaged 31.1 points, 11.8 rebounds, and 5.7 assists last season. On the flip-side, Lillard averaged 32.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 7.3 assists, indicating this could be the best duo in the NBA for next season.
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