Milwaukee – Damian Lillard has a torn tendon of Achilles, confirming the worst fears of the Milwaukee Bucks after the seven-time Guardian All-NBA received the help of the court on Sunday night.
The Bucks announced the severity of Lillard’s injury after having a magnetic resonance on Monday.
The injury knocked out Lillard for the rest of the postseason and could also put his status for the next season in doubt. When Kevin Durant torn his Achilles tendon In the 2019 NBA finals, he ended up losing the entire 2019-20 season.
The dollars had prepared for this result after Milwaukee’s 129-103 Loss to the Indiana Pacers in the game 4. Milwaukee Trails Los Indiana Pacers 3-1 in their first round of the East Conference. Game 5 is Tuesday in Indianapolis.
Lillard lesion It happened in his third game from return of deep venous thrombosis in its right calf.
“This is difficult, sincerely,” said Bucks coach, Doc Rivers, after Sunday’s game. “Blood key, followed by this. It is difficult. That’s why you have teammates and family members around them. He is such a great guy, at the basketball level, but most importantly as a teammate and father and all that.”
Lillard, 34, was behind the 3 -point line around the top of the key in the middle of the first quarter when the ball bounced towards him. Lillard used his left hand to bow the ball towards his teammate Gary Trent Jr., then went down and grabbed the bottom of his left leg. He continued sitting on the floor while the game resumed at the other end of the court.
When Lillard got up, he could not put weight on his left leg. He was finally helped to the court and costumes.
“It is one of the toughest guys I know, so when you are depressed, you feel for him,” said his teammate Pat Connaughton, who played with Lillard in Portland and Milwaukee.
Lillard’s hardness had been evident for the fact that he was playing in the first place after missing the last 14 games of the regular bucks season with deep vein thrombosis, An abnormal clot inside a vessel where blood freezing blocks the flow on the way back to the heart.
He was taken from blood medications and cleared to resume complete basketball activity after the regular season. Game 1 of the Pacers series was lost to return and then returned in game 2.
“I respect him very much,” said teammate and twice MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. “Many people do not see what Dame had to deal with, but we are around them every day, and it is difficult. It is difficult to be in position. It is one of the toughest and most tougher types that I have been.
Lillard took the tenth place in the NBA in annotations (24.9) and tenth in assists (7.1) this season while winning his tenth selection of All-Star games. He made an extraordinarily Fast return From his deep venous thrombosis to meet with his teammates for playoffs.
While talking to journalists before the playoffs, Lillard said doctors had told him that his case was unusual.
“They were like, ‘we don’t see this,” Lillard said then. “For me, I thought, it was a different experience for me because I entered there a lot of times and it was the same size. So I’m like, it didn’t seem so special, and then reached a point where it became much smaller than nothing.”
Now faces an even longer recovery while it is a separate problem that requires surgery.
“I think it will overcome all the obstacles that are in front of him,” said Antetokounmpo. “Everyone will be there for him. No matter what the obstacle to him, he will overcome and we will help him overcome it.”
The situation of Lillard continues the streak of bad luck of bucks with lesions in the postseason since he won his Title 2021.
Jrisis Medleton I lost a complete game of seven Semifinal loss of the conference to Boston in 2022 with a crooked medial collateral ligament. Antietokounmppo bruised his low back In the first playoff game of Milwaukee in 2023 and did not return to game 4 of a first round series Lost 4-1 To Miami. In the dollars’ 4-2 FIRST ROUND LOSS Indiana last year, Antetokounmpo did not play Not at all because of a calf tension, and Lillard lost two games with an Achilles injury.
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