Milwaukee Bucks Star Damian Lillard Sheds Light on Calf Injury After Two-Game Absence

Damian Lillard returned to action on Monday night to help the Milwaukee Bucks take down the Chicago Bulls, 118-109. This was Dame’s first game back after missing two straight contests due to a lingering calf injury.

Lillard did not have his best game on Monday, but his mere presence had an undeniable impact on the outcome of the contest.

Lillard finished Monday’s win with 12 points, three rebounds, five assists, and five turnovers. The seven-time All-Star had a miserable time shooting the ball, going 3-of-17 from the field and 1-of-9 from beyond the arc.

Dame looked rusty after missing the previous two games — a decision that the 33-year-old shed some light on on Monday:

“Last season I had a couple calf strains, so just from that experience I didn’t want it to linger,” Lillard said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I didn’t want to put myself on sideline longer trying to play through something that I could feel already. So, we took a proactive approach.”

Lillard went on to admit that his recent spell on the sidelines may have had a significant impact on his sub-par shooting night:

“I felt pretty good,” Lillard said. “If I didn’t feel good enough to play I wouldn’t have played. But I think anytime you miss time, especially when you’re already kind of behind (physically) to begin with, it’s going to have some sort of effect. But given the circumstances I felt pretty good.”

The most important thing here is that Lillard was able to play the entire game without incident. The Bucks emerged with a victory too, so that’s great, of course.

We expect Lillard to fare better on Wednesday when Milwaukee takes on the Toronto Raptors.

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Monday was a special day for Milwaukee Bucks rookie Andre Jackson Jr. The young man was celebrating his 22nd birthday, which prompted the team to put in a lot of effort to make sure that this was going to be an unforgettable event for Jackson.

It’s not as if the Bucks had the entire stadium sing a Happy Birthday to Jackson before they took on the Chicago Bulls on Monday night — although his teammates did exactly that earlier in the day during practice.

Instead, the Bucks decided to present Jackson with his NCAA championship ring from last season’s title run with UConn:

After the game, though, the 6-foot-6 shooting guard admitted that he really wasn’t able to enjoy the moment as much as he had liked:

“It was weird,” he said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I didn’t expect it. I was a little bit shocked. I didn’t really get to have the excitement that I would’ve wished. Right before the game I was super locked in to what we were about to do and I was like, yeah, forget about it, we’re going to do that this year. It’s good now to look back at it and appreciate it and kind of have those memories of all those times I had with teammates at UConn and reflect on those experiences and try to recreate that here. It was definitely a great experience.”

The rookie made an impact off the bench with five points, three rebounds, and a triple in just 13 minutes of play. Jackson is expected to play a bigger role moving forward after Jae Crowder was ruled out for eight weeks due to a groin injury.

Jackson knows that his contributions to the team go way beyond the box score, and this is something that he intends to prove moving forward:

“I think I can make an impact without scoring the basketball,” Jackson said. “Just screening, being in the spot to create the space for the guys that need the ball. On this team, if I’m on the court, I’m most likely, probably, the fifth option in scoring, so I’m just going to try to do everything in my power to get those other guys clean looks and follow up their misses if they do miss and try to find another guy.”