Damian Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo duo will make preseason debut on Sunday vs. Lakers

“There’s one play that I think of off the top of my head,” Damian Lillard said. “It was in practice and I come off of a screen and the guy is fronting him. And I’m looking at it like obviously I can get it to him, but the weakside defender is there on the opposite block and I’m like, ‘I don’t want them to get it.’ “And he’s just standing there like (acts out Giannis Antetokounmpo pointing to the sky), so I just throw it up. And in his head, he’s thinking like, ‘Nobody’s going to get the ball if you throw it up there. I’m going to get it before anybody else gets it.’ So that was different for me. And I threw it up. He jumped up, caught it, turned and he just two-hand dunked it real quick. And it was like, ‘I’ve never played with nobody that’s capable of that.’ “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.” -via The Athletic / October 11, 2023

Lillard had another example come to mind. “There was another play where I was taking it out and he kind of set a screen and he cut to the middle and I kind of zipped it in there in traffic,” Lillard said, acting out Antetokounmpo squaring up to the basket and getting to the rim. “There was hands in there and he caught it, and it’s plays like that where I’m just like, ‘Man.’ “The way that I know, in my head, to dominate a game and how I can go above and beyond to do what I need to be able to do, I never played with somebody that I felt like he can do that too, you know? And his stature is just a bigger dude, a more gifted dude than I am, so to see that in that form is just like, ‘Man, this is impressive.’” -via The Athletic / October 11, 2023

While Lillard wound up not playing in that night’s 108-102 loss against the Grizzlies, he noted he is feeling good and getting closer to making his debut in a Milwaukee uniform. “I’ve been on the floor during practice,” Lillard said. “It is a process, but it doesn’t take long. The first day, I was really tired. It was the day I spoke to you guys (the second day of training camp). I was really tired that day because it was literally my first time. I don’t even mean, like, ‘Oh I had played some in the summer.’ -via The Athletic / October 11, 2023

BasketNews: According to the NBA GM survey, these are the players who would they start a new franchise with 1. 🇷🇸 Nikola Jokic – 33% 2. 🇫🇷 Victor Wembanyama – 23% 3. 🇬🇷 Giannis Antetokounmpo – 13% 4. 🇸🇰 Luka Doncic – 10% 5. 🇺🇸 Anthony Edwards – 7% pic.twitter.com/mDVgdXXliX -via Twitter @BasketNews_com / October 11, 2023