{"id":6897,"date":"2024-09-12T22:20:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T22:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=6897"},"modified":"2024-09-12T22:20:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T22:20:44","slug":"kendrick-perkins-issues-a-challenge-to-damian-lillard-and-milwaukee-bucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=6897","title":{"rendered":"Kendrick Perkins Issues A Challenge To Damian Lillard And Milwaukee Bucks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After eight-time NBA All-Star\u00a0<a class=\"mai-link-injected\" href=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/tag\/damian-lillard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Damian Lillard<\/a>\u00a0joined the Milwaukee Bucks in September 2023, the 2021 NBA champions became title contenders. However, they faced an early playoff exit against the Indiana Pacers. Ahead of the 2024-25 regular season, 2008 NBA champion\u00a0<a class=\"mai-link-injected\" href=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/tag\/kendrick-perkins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kendrick Perkins<\/a>\u00a0discussed the intense pressure on Dame and the Bucks to win the championship.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-sm-content-width\" data-content-name=\"mai-video-player\" data-track-content=\"\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div id=\"pw-med-background\">\n<p>The Milwaukee Bucks had a disappointing playoff run last season, and Damian Lillard\u2019s quest to reach his first NBA Finals continued. During a show,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/nba\/video-kendrick-perkins-drops-a-truth-bomb-on-why-steph-curry-will-have-a-tough-2024-25-season-with-the-golden-state-warriors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins<\/a>\u00a0talked about the tremendous pressure of winning an NBA championship on the 34-year-old Lillard.<\/p>\n<p>Perkins mentioned the defending champions, Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks, would be a problem for Milwaukee next season. The former Celtics center issued a subtle challenge to Lillard and the Bucks. He said,\u00a0<em>\u201cJust making it to the playoffs or the conference finals is not enough. \u2026 We got to keep that same energy with Damian Lillard.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;Just making it to the playoffs or the conference finals is not enough. &#8230; We got to keep that same energy with Damian Lillard.&#8221; \ud83d\ude33 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KendrickPerkins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@KendrickPerkins<\/a> says Giannis and Dame are under pressure to win it all next season \ud83d\udc40 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WmlKRHljlY\">pic.twitter.com\/WmlKRHljlY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ESPNNBA\/status\/1833947172972151018?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"h-what-went-wrong-for-the-bucks-last-season\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Went Wrong For The Bucks Last Season?<\/h2>\n<p>The Bucks finished third in the Eastern Conference standings with a 49-33 record last season. However, two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo\u2019s leg injury forced him to miss the playoffs. On the other hand, Damian Lillard powered the Bucks to win the first game but\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/news\/damian-lillard-achilles-bucks-pacers-series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suffered an Achilles injury<\/a>\u00a0in the third game. Lillard missed Games 4 and 5 as\u00a0<a class=\"mai-link-injected\" href=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/tag\/doc-rivers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Doc Rivers<\/a>\u2019 side lost the Eastern Conference first round against Tyrese Haliburton\u2019s Pacers in six games.<\/p>\n<div id=\"incontent-ad-1\" class=\"pw-incontent\" data-label=\"Advertisement\"><\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2153510\" src=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Damian-Lillard-1024x683.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Damian-Lillard-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Damian-Lillard-595x397.jpg 595w, https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Damian-Lillard-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Damian-Lillard-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Damian-Lillard-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Damian-Lillard-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" alt=\"Kendrick Perkins Issues A Challenge To Damian Lillard And Milwaukee Bucks\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Damian Lillard (Photo by Dylan Buell\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>The 2024-25 NBA regular season is approaching, and the Boston Celtics will look to become the first team since the 2018 Golden State Warriors to defend their title. However,\u00a0<a class=\"mai-link-injected\" href=\"https:\/\/www.totalprosports.com\/tag\/jayson-tatum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jayson Tatum<\/a>\u2019s Celtics face a major threat from the Milwaukee Bucks\u2019 star duo of Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; After eight-time NBA All-Star\u00a0Damian Lillard\u00a0joined the Milwaukee Bucks in September 2023, the 2021 NBA champions became title contenders. However, they faced an early playoff exit against the Indiana Pacers. &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6899,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6897\/revisions\/6899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}