LILLARD THREATENS GIANNIS’ MVP CHANCES: Bucks’ Damian Lillard Could Cost Giannis Antetokounmpo Third MVP Trophy
Nine-time All-Star Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo’s play this season is certainly worthy of a third MVP trophy — but his nine-time All-Star running mate, point guard Damian Lillard, seems likely to stop that.
Lillard has been shelved since the Bucks’ 104-93 road loss to the Golden State Warriors on March 18, as he grapples with a deep vein thrombosis (blood clot) in his right calf. Milwaukee has split its subsequent eight contests, 4-4.
In his 58 available games thus far this season, Lillard has been averaging 24.9 points on .448/.376/.921 shooting splits, 7.1 assists, and 4.7 rebounds a night. The 6-foot-2 Weber State product is Milwaukee’s second-most important player, as a major half-court creator and scorer.
Lillard may not be quite performing at his Portland Trail Blazers-era All-NBA levels, and he’s struggled with his health at the end of his last four straight seasons now.
Had Lillard been available, though, there’s almost no question that the Bucks would have won more games down the home stretch of their 2024-25 NBA season.
On Saturday, the Bucks officially clinched a playoff seed even prior to their evening clash with the Miami Heat, thanks to the New York Knicks’ 121-105 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta, the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, has now lost three straight contests and has sunk to a 36-41 overall record on the year.
Neither the Hawks nor the 38-40 Orlando Magic will be able to better the Bucks’ 42-34 record with the few games they have left, meaning Milwaukee automatically clinches a top-six playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. As Eric Nehm of The Athletic observes, the team has now made nine consecutive playoff appearances during its Giannis Antetokounmpo era.
Antetokoumpo, 30, has been playing out of his mind of late — in part because he has had to pick up some offensive slack with Lillard shelved indefinitely. Sixth man power forward Bobby Portis, a reliable bench scorer, is still in the midst of a 25-game suspension, and his absence has necessitated more Antetokounmpo touches, too.
The 6-foot-11 superstar, a two-time league MVP, is averaging 30.4 points, 11.9 rebounds and 6.2 assists. He made league history with an insane 35-point, 20-assist, 17-rebound night in a 126-113 win against the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday.
But his team’s record is too lackluster, and fellow MVP contenders Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder are playing similarly well on much better clubs.
If Lillard can’t return and help push the Bucks to at least a 5-1 run to close out the season, Antetokounmpo has virtually no shot of breaking into what has largely been a two-man MVP race. He may be the league’s best two-way player right now, but team performance is generally weighed pretty heavily in these MVP competitions.
In the last decade, only Russell Westbrook has been named a league MVP on a sub-50 win team, the 47-35 Thunder. That 47-win tally may be the floor for a legitimate MVP candidate. Antetokounmpo can get there with the Bucks, but the odds are stacked against them sans Lillard and, to a lesser extent, Portis.
