Blazers are preparing to face a star who downplayed Sunday’s game in Milwaukee

admin | November 26, 2023 | Other Clubs | No Comments

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.

It’s not as if Lillard will be going up against CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic coached by Terry Stotts.

“Maybe when we go back to Portland, I’ll be like, once I walk in the building, ‘I used to go to work here every day for 11 years,'” he told me. “So I think when that happens, I’ll see familiar faces and that will bring it up.” But not in this case.”

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.”

Billups recalled when Detroit, after six seasons, traded him to Denver and how he felt when the two teams met.

“It was an emotional game,” Billups said. “You have everything involved. You’re mad they traded you. You’re happy to play against the guys. You’re happy to see some of your old teammates. So, it’s a lot of different emotions that you go through. I don’t know that the mad one will happen with Dame, since he wanted out. He’s very happy with where he’s at.”

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.

“Should be a good one,” Blazers forward Jerami Grant said. “We know the type of team they have. They have championship-caliber team. So, we gotta come out ready to play. Definitely going to be a lot of emotions for the organization, obviously playing against Dame and everything. But we’ve got to come out and do what we need to, to try to get the win.”