Damian Lillard Is Officially Healthy: The Bucks Will Have Zero Excuses When They Lose To The Pacers
Set your clocks to Dame Time - he's back. Kind of. I'm not a doctor, but less than a month seems like an incredibly fast recovery from a blood clot? Your shit isn't coagulating right, you can't just rest and it goes away. The Bucks medical staff had to be working around the clock to get this man back in time, maybe even reaching into Ol' Crazy Eyes Portis' medicine cabinet to mix up a nice cocktail of random medications. I'm glad Lillard has a clean bill of health, but this sort of seems like the Giannis timeline from last year's playoffs - he'll miss the first game, but he'll ramp up intensity in practice to see if he's ready for Game 2. Giannis didn't play at all in last year's 6 game series with a bum calf, so we'll see how this goes.
As A Pacers' fan, I want Lillard back for two reasons
1. If the Pacers win the series, I can't listen to Bucks fans use the Dame wasn't playing excuse. Even though maybe that's what happens when you sign an older guy who is injury prone - they miss games. Although missing time for a blood clot isn't predictable is terrible luck for Buck's fans.
2. This might be a hot take, but I think the Bucks are worse with Lillard. Offensively, he can shoot the lights out of the gym, but he is the biggest defensive liability on the court. The Bucks are much bigger and longer than the Pacers, but Lillard is the one spot that offers up mismatches the undersized Pacers can exploit.
3. I lied, 3 reasons - the storylines are so much better with Dame healthy. After Haliburton's insane 4 point play to beat the Bucks back in March, Tyrese hit the Dame Time celebration ... AGAIN.
This is a year after he hit it during the in season tournament, and Lillard told Haliburton in a press conference to be humble, because you never know when a tournament run will end.
I need these two guys throwing Dame Time celebration's in each others faces for a full 7 game series. Throw that in with Ballgate from last year, and all the bad blood between these two franchises, and oooooooo baby do we have a great first round matchup. I already know this series will take a couple of years off my life, nothing is easy against the Bucks (even when they are down their two best players.) Giannis is going to get his like he does every game, but hopefully Indiana can limit his supporting cast of shooters. I feel like Gary Trent Jr. has never missed a 3 pointer vs Indiana. Probably not a good thing if Im worried about Gary Trent Jr, but I'm predicting the Pacers win in 6 games - with or without Dame.
