Damian Lillard had a major say in the Milwaukee Bucks advancing to the NBA Cup semifinals tonight.
Lillard scored 28 points in the Bucks 114-109 quarterfinal victory over the visiting Orlando Magic, scoring a pair of crucial buckets to tie, and subsequently propel the Bucks in front down the stretch. The veteran star spoke about both plays postgame and what he saw on the court.
“So on the other one, I went hard left and I stepped back to see what he would do, and when I stepped back he tried to contest it so I stepped back again behind the line,” Lillard said about the game-tying three point shot. “I was just reading his body, his positioning, but also try to tie the game. I wanted to make sure that I could create and create space.
“As I was coming, I saw that they were communicating and people were crossing and nobody was set to help and I just took off,” Lillard said about his go-ahead lay up. “When I took off, I got around the first defender and saw Bitadze was moving to the three-point line, he probably wanted to get there to avoid letting up a strong-side three, but I just kept going.”
