Doc: Lopez's attempted game-winner vs. Blazers was meant for Lillard
New Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said the plan was for Damian Lillard to take the team's final shot instead of center Brook Lopez in Wednesday's road loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Down by one point with 17.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Bucks ran a sideline out-of-bounds play for Lillard. But the Blazers doubled-teamed Lillard, forcing the star to pass to Lopez, who pump-faked and shot a missed three-pointer.
Milwaukee lost the game 119-116. The matchup was Lillard's return to Portland since being traded to the Bucks in September after 11 seasons with the Blazers.
Dame had to pass, Brook took the three and came up short pic.twitter.com/dVOOvKgdhA
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"The look was for Dame," Rivers said postgame. "We wanted Dame to take that or be aggressive. But Dame made the right play. ... If a guy is wide open, throw it to him. I haven't seen the film, so I have to watch it. I thought Brook was open for the three, and then he pump-faked. That's when he probably should have gotten back off the ball."
He added: "We got what we were looking for, it just didn't work out."
Rivers, coaching his second game for the Bucks on Wednesday, said the team needs to communicate better to succeed in those situations.
"Obviously, there are multiple looks," Lopez said, according to The Athletic's Eric Nehm. "We wanted to get Dame coming off initially, and we had Giannis (Antetokounmpo) rolling. It came back to me, and they closed hard. I put it down and out of my peripheral. I thought Malcolm (Brodgon) was a bit more up on Dame than he really was, so I just stepped into it and took my shot.
"Looking back at the film, Dame was a bit more open than I thought he was, but I'm definitely confident in the shot."
Lillard finished the night with 25 points.
"It was a fun game," Lillard said, according to Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. "I think these types of games where there's a lot of meaning, there's a lot of emotion to it, it's always a fun game. It's always competitive. These games are never just a boring game or a blowout. It seems like there's always a little bit more juice to them."