The Milwaukee Bucks have picked a terrible time to be on a slump. Sunday’s 122-109 loss against the New York Knicks marked their fourth straight loss, and at this point, it comes as no surprise that both the pundits and the fans are starting to press the panic button on Milwaukee’s title chances this season.
For his part, however, Bucks superstar Damian Lillard is keeping his head straight. Dame has been through a whole lot in his career, and he remains adamant that his team has what it takes to dig themselves out of this deep hole they currently lie in.
Milwaukee Bucks News: Damian Lillard Is Not Panicking
Lillard, who finished Sunday’s tough loss with 23 points on 4-of-11 shooting and 1-of-7 from deep, acknowledged that the Bucks are indeed struggling mightily of late. However, the eight-time All-Star remains confident that they will get back to proper form sooner rather than later:
“I mean, as crazy as it might sound, I feel good,” Lillard said, via Eric Nehm and Shams Charania of The Athletic. “Obviously, I hate how the last two weeks or so, however long it’s been, has gone. It’s uncomfortable and it’s frustrating to lose games that we should win and then have a game like tonight where we start off playing well and then have a bad third quarter and get those guys believing and then they take over the game. But when I look around the locker room, I just feel good about it.
“I see Giannis, Khris, Bobby and Brook and Jae and Pat, Beas. When I look around, I just have a true belief in what we have, our experience, how long we’ve been around. And I know that sometimes it gets dark. This league is a tough league. Sometimes you have hard times. And I think that’s what it is for us. And when this kind of stuff happens, everybody’s going to say how bad it is. And ‘This is the problem.’ (or) ‘They gotta do this; they gotta do that.’ But when you just keep fighting in these situations, you never know when it’s going to turn.”
Let’s not forget that these are the 2001 NBA Champions Milwaukee Bucks we’re talking about here. They have a ton of experience under their belt, and this is exactly what Lillard is banking on to carry them through this downturn.
Dame Rallies the Troops
Lillard went on to highlight the silver lining of what has been a terrible past week or so for the Bucks. According to the 33-year-old, these are the types of moments that define the squad:
“That’s why you gotta stay together, you gotta keep believing,” he continued. “And these are the moments where you find out who’s a real one and who’s not, because everybody’s going to be saying negative stuff and how wrong it is and how bad it is, and you can fold or not fold. That’s what we’re going to learn about ourselves going into the playoffs, based on the experience that we having right now.”
It’s as if Lillard is saying that the Bucks need this adversity in order for them to truly reach their potential. If you think about it, it’s actually much better that Milwaukee is going through this slump now as opposed to during the postseason. That is, of course, under the premise that they will soon get themselves out of this rut.
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