As any ardent NBA fan knows, Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo are among the greatest pick-your-poison combos ever. Teams would have to decide between being burned on the outside by the shooter’s touch or getting destroyed within the paint by the former MVP of the Milwaukee Bucks. For the first time, Nick Nurse faced this task in its entirety.
His Philadelphia 76ers came within a hair’s breadth of winning. However, the team led by Joel Embiid was defeated by a mere one point. Through ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, the Sixers coach discussed his thoughts on controlling both the guard and the dominant big man.
“It’s gonna be tough. He’s hard to guard with his stop-start. His shiftiness and it’s gonna be hard to guard … how many times did he go to the line tonight? 30? 17? It just felt like 30,” Nick Nurse said after his Sixers lost by the skin of their teeth against the Bucks.
Damian Lillard did start to torch the Sixers despite Giannis Antetokounmpo’s serviceable outputs on the stat sheet. Nurse and Joel Embiid had to deal with massive shots from Lillard that swung all the momentum away from them. Lillard notched 39 points along with four assists to boost the Bucks offense massively. He capped off his all-around performance with eight boards and a clutch bucket in his debut.
To catch up to their conference opponents, the Sixers have a lot of work ahead of them. In the games still on the schedule, will they be able to defeat them?
