Damian Lillard will be up against an awfully familiar foe when the Milwaukee Bucks face the visiting Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday afternoon.
Lillard spent the first 11 seasons of his career with Portland, appearing in 769 games before being shipped to Milwaukee in late September as part of a three-team deal that shook up the NBA landscape.
The Trail Blazers received Jrue Holiday, a 2029 first-round pick and two first-round pick swaps (2028, 2030) from the Bucks, while also getting Deandre Ayton and Toumani Camara from the Suns. Milwaukee sent Grayson Allen to Phoenix, which also received Keon Johnson, Nassir Little and Jusuf Nurkic from Portland.
With the Bucks playing on their home court on Sunday, Lillard views the contest as just another game.
“I don’t see it being that emotional of a situation, I don’t,” Lillard said. “I’m pretty sure it’s not gonna be a game where I wake up on a game day and be like, ‘Ah man, we playing the Blazers.’
“Maybe when we go back to Portland … that’ll kinda bring (emotions) up, but not here.”
Although his shooting splits have been uncharacteristically low through his first 14 games with his new team, Lillard looked like the version of himself that Portland came to know so well when he went for 31 points, six rebounds and 10 assists in Milwaukee’s 131-128 home victory over the Washington Wizards on Friday.
Through his first 13 games of the season, Lillard shot 40.2 percent from the field and 32.5 percent from 3-point range. But he drained 11 of 18 field-goal attempts on Friday as the Bucks saw three players score at least 30 points in the same game for the first time in franchise history.
Brook Lopez matched a career high with 39 points, while Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 31.
That trio will look for similar success against the Trail Blazers, who were mired in an eight-game skid prior to beating the Utah Jazz 121-105 on Wednesday.
Jerami Grant led the way with 30 points for Portland, which also got 20 points, four rebounds and eight assists from Malcolm Brogdon. Jabari Walker recorded a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double off the bench.
Grant was traded from the Detroit Pistons to the Blazers in July 2022, and he credits Lillard as one of the reasons why he ended up in Portland.
“He wants to win. He’s a winner,” Grant said of Lillard. “He brought me here in order to try to win. Always respect that. Still got a good friendship.”
However, Grant’s main focus is coming out of Milwaukee with a win.
“Definitely going to be a lot of emotions for the organization … playing against Dame and everything,” Grant said. “But we gotta come out and do what we need to to try and get the win.”
Winning hasn’t come easy for the Trail Blazers in meetings with the Bucks, as Portland is 2-12 in its past 14 games against Milwaukee.
The most recent time the teams met, Lopez posted 27 points and Antetokounmpo supplied 24 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists in a 127-108 Bucks victory on Feb. 6. Lillard had a game-high 28 points for the host Blazers.
–Field Level Media