{"id":1537,"date":"2023-10-16T15:18:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T12:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/1537\/damian-lillard-giannis-antetokounmpo-bucks-pairing-impressive-start\/"},"modified":"2023-10-16T15:18:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T12:18:26","slug":"damian-lillard-giannis-antetokounmpo-bucks-pairing-impressive-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/?p=1537","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;We can do this all night&#8217; &#8211; Dame-Giannis pairing off to impressive start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;We can do this all night&#8217; &#8211; Dame-Giannis pairing off to impressive start\u060c<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-meta\">\n<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\">\n<div class=\"author-img\"><\/div>\n<p>Dave McMenamin, ESPN editor<span class=\"timestamp \">October 16, 2023, 6:26 a.m.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author-overlay\">Close<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN.\n<\/li>\n<li>Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009 to 2014, the Cavaliers from 2014 to 2018 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005 to 2009.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>LOS ANGELES \u2014 It didn&#8217;t take long for Giannis Antetokounmpo to realize how different life would be for him playing alongside seven-time All-Star Damian Lillard compared to the rest of his 11-year NBA career.<\/p>\n<p>It was almost a possession in the two&#8217;s first preseason game together Sunday against the Los Angeles Lakers when things became clear for the two-time MVP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m going to be very honest,\u201d Antetokounmpo said after the Bucks\u2019 108-97 victory.  &#8220;I&#8217;ve never been so open. And first of all, I&#8217;ve never seen anyone double-team on the first possession of the ball in a game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lillard, acquired by the Bucks in a three-team deal with the Phoenix Suns and Portland Trail Blazers last month, said teaming up with a player like Antetokounmpo made the Lakers&#8217; defensive plans easy to digest.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline editorial float-r\" data-behavior=\"article_related\">\n<h2 class=\"editorial-title\">Editor&#8217;s Choice<\/h2>\n<p>2 Related<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cHaving another guy who is just dominant,\u201d Lillard said after Antetokounmpo scored 16 points in 15 minutes on 7-of-10 shooting. \u201cHe can dominate a game and <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/win\/\"   title=\"win\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">win<\/a> you a game. &#8230; The first few games , they&#8217;re blitzing me, they&#8217;re trapping me and the guy I&#8217;m throwing the ball to is Giannis. So I&#8217;m like, &#8216;Uh, we can do this all night. You know what I mean?&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The duo officially recorded their partnership in the scorebook midway through the first quarter when Lillard stole the ball from Lakers center Christian Wood and sped up the court, delivering a passing ball to rack up an assist on a dunk transition from Antetokounmpo.  Lillard didn&#8217;t attempt his first shot until the next possession, with 6:24 left in the first, when he was fouled by D&#8217;Angelo Russell from beyond the 3-point line.<\/p>\n<p>They ran together across half court.  Sometimes Lillard would handle the ball and Antetokounmpo would set the screen;  Sometimes the roles were reversed and Lillard used his 6-foot-2, 195-pound frame to outstretch the Bucks star.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re going to have a lot of options,\u201d Lillard said.  \u201cThere will be times when he is ready to play against me, and vice versa, as we saw today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Milwaukee held a 56-53 lead at halftime when Bucks coach Adrian Griffin gave Antetokounmpo the rest of the night.  Lillard finished with 14 points on 3-of-10 shooting, including 6-of-6 on free throws, and added four steals and three assists.  He started the second half, giving him a chance to control the action without Antetokounmpo on the floor, before being rested in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p>As limited as the dress rehearsal was, with Antetokounmpo and Lillard ultimately sharing the court for just a few quarters in Game 3 of the Bucks&#8217; five-game exhibition run, Griffin was impressed with what he saw.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday was a big first step in the right direction,\u201d Griffin said.  &#8220;You can see these guys already love playing together. And not just Dame and Giannis, but everyone was pulling for each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Antetokounmpo, 28, praised Lillard, 33, as much for the person he is as for his status as a player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like it\u2019s like a little version of me,\u201d Antetokounmpo.  &#8220;A guard version. &#8230; Calm. Goes about his business. Takes care of his family. Shows up. Trains really hard. Helps his teammates when he needs to express himself. &#8230; And when the game starts , he&#8217;s just a killer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pull-quote\"><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll be very honest, I&#8217;ve never been this open. And first of all, I&#8217;ve never seen anyone double-team on the first possession of the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><cite><\/p>\n<div class=\"img-container headshot\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload\" data-lazyload=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/We-can-do-this-all-night-Dame-Giannis-pairing-off.png&#038;w=65&#038;h=90&#038;scale=crop&#038;background=0xcccccc&#038;transparent=false.png\"\/><\/div>\n<p>Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>While the Bucks big <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/man\/\"   title=\"man\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">man<\/a> has helped his team win more than 50 games in four of the last five seasons and win a title in 2021, he has been an eager student of Lillard during training camp &#8211; especially when it comes to Milwaukee&#8217;s new offense.  , implemented by assistant coach Terry Stotts, who was Lillard&#8217;s head coach in Portland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned so much from him,\u201d Antetokounmpo said of Lillard.  &#8220;He knows how to play this game. He puts himself in position to succeed. He helps us and puts me in position to succeed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lillard anticipates the failures his new team will experience while moving toward his championship goal, knowing it won&#8217;t be a linear process to success.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt might be a while before Giannis has to get mad at me about something,\u201d Lillard said with a laugh.  \u201cSomething has to happen for you to really <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/tag\/start\/\"   title=\"start\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\">start<\/a> learning who we are and how we come together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Antetokounmpo said Lillard has nothing to worry about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever be mad at him,\u201d Antetokounmpo said.  &#8220;What he does for this team is such that you can never be upset. &#8230; What he does, just by being out there, he creates so much attention. It makes our game easier. &#8230; In doing nothing, just walking around, just being Damian Lillard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;We can do this all night&#8217; &#8211; Dame-Giannis pairing off to impressive start\u060c Dave McMenamin, ESPN editorOctober 16, 2023, 6:26 a.m. Close Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009 to 2014, the Cavaliers from 2014 to 2018 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005 to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1883,82,428,1884,37],"class_list":["post-1537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","tag-damegiannis","tag-impressive","tag-night","tag-pairing","tag-start"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1539,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions\/1539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wikidollar.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}