Blazers are preparing to face a star who downplayed Sunday’s game in Milwaukee
|The Portland Trail Blazers will meet Damian Lillard for the first time since the team traded him prior to the start of training camp when they play the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday afternoon.
Although a traded icon hosting his former team is rarely as dramatic as when he returns to the location where he became a superstar, the occasion is likely to be high-energy.
Coach Chauncey Billups, who coached Lillard for two seasons, said he was excited to meet him and compete against him.
“It’s just gonna be fun to have him out there,” Billups added. “Obviously, playing against Notre Dame will be strange. It’s strange game preparing against him after coaching him for a few years. So, I’m sure most of our guys will find it strange as well. But it’ll be entertaining. I’m excited about it. It’ll be a fun time.”
Anfernee Simons, who played with his coach for five seasons, said Sunday will be unusual, but he has seen enough Bucks games to be acclimated to watching Lillard in a different uniform. What will be genuinely strange, according to Simons, is when Lillard and the Bucks play the Blazers on Jan. 31.
“It will probably be different for sure when I actually play against him for the first time,” remarked Simons.
Lillard seemed to concur. He told reporters after the Bucks’ win over Detroit on Friday that he wasn’t looking forward to Sunday’s game.
“I thought I would be anticipating more but I’m not really caught up into it,” Lillard said in an interview. “I believe it will be something I think about more when we return to Portland.” But them being here feels like another game in which I’ll see folks I used to spend a lot of time with. The crew is very unique.”
Actually, most of the roster never played with Lillard. Only Simons, Jerami Grant (one season), Shaedon Sharpe (one season), Jabari Walker (one season), Matisse Thybulle (under half of a season) have actually been on the court with Lillard.
Billups agreed that the game in Portland will likely have more significance, but he expects Lillard to be available on Sunday.
“I’m sure he will want to play very well and do good and show well,” Billups went on to say. “I’m sure he’ll be fired up. This is his first experience with a circumstance like this in his whole career.”
Maybe. But Lillard ultimately wanted out only because the Blazers decided not to continue building around him. There was certainly some animosity remaining toward the franchise when Lillard was ultimately sent to the Bucks.