MILWAUKEE — Damian Lillard has dealt with all kinds of injuries through his 13 seasons in the NBA, but he’d never had to worry about recovering from a concussion before.
His return from concussion protocol put the Milwaukee Bucks guard in a much more familiar situation.
Lillard came back after sitting out three games and made a winning layup with 3.9 seconds left in the Bucks’ 101-100 victory over Houston that ended the Rockets‘ five-game winning streak Monday.
“That was actually my first time in my life just getting a concussion,” Lillard said after the game. “I’ve played football. I box all the time. I’ve been in some situations where you would expect I’d have had a concussion before, but first time.
“Usually when something is wrong with me, I feel I can will myself through it and I’m all right. This was probably one of the first times in my life and definitely in my NBA career where I was like, ‘Something is off.’ It was a little frustrating because I didn’t have a choice but to go through the process. I just had to acknowledge the way I was feeling, and I knew I wasn’t all the way right.”
Lillard had an up-and-down performance in his return. He compiled 18 points and 10 assists but missed all six of his 3-point attempts and couldn’t convert some contested layups he normally makes.
But when the game was on the line, Lillard delivered, as he has done throughout his career.
“I think he’s one of the best to ever do it — like finishing the game,” Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said.
Lillard’s closing ability had Bucks coach Doc Rivers drawing comparisons to one of the game’s greatest shooters ever.
“Dame just has great courage, you know?” Rivers said. “Reminds me a lot of Ray Allen in that way. Ray didn’t have a lot of bad shooting nights, but when he had one, if you had one shot to make, you still wanted to go to him. And that’s how you feel about Dame. Like, whether he’s on fire or not, he just has this thing in him that he believes that he should take the last shot and make the last shot. And he does it over and over.”
The Bucks trailed 100-99 when Lillard had the ball in his hands in the closing seconds. He drove into the lane, split two defenders and made a driving layup that put Milwaukee ahead for good.
“I could feel it was one of those games where I needed to keep going, keep my foot on the gas down the stretch,” Lillard said. “It just came down to those last two plays. I got one to go and we were able to get a stop on the other end.”
It was the type of moment that Lillard so badly wanted to deliver during his difficult week working to get back on the court.
“I tried to really speed my way through the protocols so I could get back,” Lillard said. “I think it ended up kind of working against me. I did a 30-minute bike ride, 30-minute treadmill, 30 minutes on the court all in one day just to try to see how I felt. I saw that I wasn’t right. And then from there, I was doing 45-minute workouts on the court, just trying to do that fast-paced, less breaks, stuff like that just to push myself to try to make up for not being on the floor.”