Damian Lillard on relationship with Giannis: ‘Me and him gotta be able to hold each other accountable’

The Milwaukee Bucks’ Damian Lillard experiment has yet to pay dividends for the team. In Lillard’s first season in Milwaukee, he averaged his fewest points per game since the 2014-15 campaign (24.3), and the Bucks were bounced in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs by the Indiana Pacers.

On top of that, the Bucks have gotten off to a slow start in his second season with the team. Milwaukee owns a 1-2 record on the season after it suffered an ugly loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday. The Bucks are in grave danger of dropping to 1-3 soon as well, considering they will take on the Boston Celtics on Monday night.

Lillard shared what he believes he and Giannis Antetokounmpo have to do in order for the team to win the NBA’s ultimate prize, the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

“Me and him gotta be able to hold each other accountable,” Lillard on what he and Antetokounmpo need to do to win a title together. “And I don’t mean yellin’ at each other all the time, just mean like I gotta be able to say somethin’ to you. And you gotta be able to say somethin’ to me at all times. He’s always had to put his foot down in Milwaukee and kind of lead the charge and be kind of like the man to push it forward. And I’ve always been that way in Portland. And I think now that we together, we both gotta look over and say, ‘This a top-75 player, too.’ And I gotta trust him to carry this with me. I think we both gotta do that. After that, we got a shot. We got a shot.”

The Bucks’ upcoming matchup against the Celtics will serve as a good measuring stick game for Milwaukee early on in the campaign. The Celtics are the team to beat, not only in the Eastern Conference but the NBA as a whole.

At 3-0, Boston has yet to pick up a loss since the season started. The Celtics are one of only four teams in the league right now — along with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder to boast such a record. In addition, based on the team’s play through three games, it seems as if it could go down as one of the all-time great 3-point shooting teams.

The Celtics’ 3-point offense has been nothing short of lethal to this point. Boston is leading the NBA in both 3s made (22.7) and attempted (51.3) per game.

It should be interesting to witness whether the Bucks will be able to limit Boston’s scoring from behind the 3-point arc. Part of what makes the Celtics so hard to cover is that players up and down their roster — from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to Sam Hauser and Xavier Tillman — can shoot the ball from deep.