Milwaukee Bucks All-Star level guard Damian Lillard has been cleared of his deep vein thrombosis and is now not on blood-thinning medicine, in keeping with ESPN’s Shams Charania on Thursday.
Simply three weeks after being dominated out indefinitely because of blood clots, Lillard acquired exceptional and historic medical information by clearing the clot so rapidly due to early detection and remedy.
Whereas Lillard gained’t play in Saturday’s Recreation 1 towards the Indiana Pacers, the Bucks guard could have a time frame to ramp up contact exercises forward of a return to basketball. No fast timeline has been set for his return.
I’m no physician, however leaving basketball out of this, it looks like a serious win for Lillard. As a fan of basketball, we’ve seen Chris Bosh must retire due to blood clots. The same well being scare lower quick the promising Defensive Participant of the Yr marketing campaign of younger phenom Victor Wembanyama this season as nicely.
It’s a exceptional win to get Lillard again on the ground on the whole. However in three weeks? That’s phenomenal work by everybody concerned.
On the court docket, there’s no denying that the Bucks will want Lillard’s providers sooner quite than later. With out Lillard, Milwaukee was a powerful 16-8. When the information of those blood clots surfaced, many had written the Bucks off for useless in a top-heavy Japanese Convention.
Milwaukee drew a tremendously troublesome first-round matchup with the Pacers, who’re probably the greatest offensive groups within the Japanese Convention. Fueled by level guard Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers can flat-out run the ground and put the ball within the basket at an extremely fast clip, so Lillard’s offensive prowess will likely be wanted.
Based on FanDuel Sportsbook, the Bucks are a slight +140 underdog to get out of the primary spherical. It’s anticipated to be essentially the most aggressive first-round sequence within the East. In the event that they do escape the high-scoring Pacers, they’ll doubtless have a convention semifinals date with the Cleveland Cavaliers — who completed the season because the No. 1 seed within the East with the No. 1 offense within the NBA.
Lillard was averaging practically 25 factors per sport earlier than being dominated out. He averaged simply over seven assists per sport as nicely. The Bucks will definitely welcome all of that, as Giannis Antetokounmpo will want his Robin wholesome and accessible to ensure that the Bucks to have actually any likelihood within the NBA Playoffs this season.
Nationally, the narrative surrounding the Japanese Convention has been all concerning the Cavaliers, Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. It’s wonderful that Lillard is even medically accessible to provide it a go, as a result of the Bucks would possibly want one other miracle out of him to make noise on this postseason.