With 5.2 seconds remaining in overtime, Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox went to the free-throw line with a chance to give his team a three-point lead. He missed the first free throw and then made the second. In making just one of two, Fox opened up the door for the Milwaukee Bucks.
And five seconds later, Damian Lillard hit a 32-foot stepback jumper at the buzzer to give the Bucks a 143-142 overtime win.
DAMIAN LILLARD FOR THE WIN AT THE BUZZER! pic.twitter.com/VKTFal8Dxo
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) January 15, 2024
After the shot went in, with a blank look on his face, Lillard turned his back to his own basket, looked out upon the crowd at Fiserv Forum, and tapped his right pointer finger to his left wrist to let the crowd now that it was officially Dame Time for the first time in Milwaukee.
“I’ve had a few moments, not any game winners, but I’ve had some big shots at the end of some games, and they (were) like, ‘Man, you didn’t even tap your wrist,'” Lillard said of his teammates’ demands for him to break out his signature celebration this season. “And I kept telling them, ‘Man, if you look over the course of my career, I didn’t just, every game, tapping my wrist. I was like, ‘I do it when it’s necessary.’ And tonight it was necessary.”
Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo seconded Lillard’s assignment, telling reporters that he had never seen anything like that before from one of his teammates.
“It’s incredible,” Antetokounmpo said. “Not to discredit Khris (Middleton) in any way, shape or form, I’ve played with this guy 11 years, 720 games with him, this was the toughest shot I’ve ever seen anybody make to win a game up close.
“It was tough. Because not only did he slow down, he kind of did an in-and-out and took a step away from the defense, jumped and while he was in the air, faded. And still was able to get it there. I don’t think it touched the rim. It was all net. At the end of the day, that’s why you get paid the big bucks.”
GO DEEPERDamian Lillard and recognizing what defines Dame TimeOn Sunday, the Bucks needed everything they could muster to pull out a tough, back-and-forth win against the Kings on the second night of a back-to-back.
The Kings defended Lillard aggressively all night, which led to some shooting struggles for the Bucks’ point guard in the first four quarters, but Lillard came up in the clutch and scored nine of Milwaukee’s 15 points in the five-minute overtime period and ended the night with 29 points, four rebounds and eight assists.
Antetokounmpo was right behind Lillard from a scoring perspective with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Malik Beasley had 23 points on 5-of-9 3-point shooting, while Bobby Portis added 22 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.
After dropping four of their first five games in January, the Bucks have now won three straight games, and coach Adrian Griffin believes that has helped the team find its identity.
“These type of games bring our team even closer,” Griffin said. “And I thought the last two games we’re starting to find our identity, how hard we have to compete.”
How did the game get to overtime?
The Bucks had an eight-point lead with 4:10 left in the fourth quarter and managed to squander it away through a series of missed shots on offense and poor execution on the defensive end. Even with those mistakes, the Bucks led by five points with 52.2 seconds left and still allowed the Kings to force overtime.
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With 17 seconds left, Kings guard Malik Monk hit two free throws to bring the Kings within one, but Antetokounmpo answered those free throws with a pair of his own to push the Bucks’ lead out to 127-124 with 11.7 seconds remaining. Shortly after the Kings inbounded the ball to Fox, the Bucks fouled and sent him to the line with 10.2 seconds remaining, a decision Griffin stood behind after the game.
“We didn’t want to take any chances of them alluding us and getting a three,” Griffin said. “So we said, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do.’ We just stick to it together. All the coaching staff was in agreement. The players were in agreement. So, I’d do that again 10 times out of 10. We’re up three. We foul.”
Fox made both free throws to cut the lead to one and the Bucks inbounded to Antetokounmpo again. The Bucks forward made just one of the two attempts and Fox ran the ball down to the other end of the floor to tie the game with one second left. With no timeouts left, Lillard heaved the ball from beyond the half-court line and missed, sending the game to overtime.
Where Lillard’s shot ranks in Bucks buzzer-beaters
Antetokounmpo made a strong declaration about Lillard’s shot and where it ranks in the pantheon of great moments in recent Bucks history.
“I’ve been with the team 11 years, that’s arguably the best buzzer-beater shot ever made (during that time),” Antetokounmpo said. “And he’s been on the team for 40 games. Would you guys disagree with me?”
To rank Lillard’s buzzer-beater as the best of the last 11 years, Antetokounmpo would be ranking it over one of his buzzer-beaters — a fadeaway 15-footer from the right elbow in Madison Square Garden to beat the Knicks on Jan. 4, 2017 — and one from Khris Middleton — a kick-out, catch-and-shoot 3-pointer off of an offensive rebound on March 24, 2015, to beat the Miami Heat.
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After a brief discussion about both shots, Antetokounmpo made a definitive ruling.
“For Dame, guys, he caught it from the other side of the court, dribbled down full speed, in and out dribble, sidestep from the logo, and knocked it down off balance. For me, it’s the best.”
Required reading
- Breaking down the Bucks’ defense: What’s gone right (not much), what’s gone wrong (a lot)
- How Bucks ‘responded like champions’ and needed only 24 minutes to dismantle Celtics
(Photo: John Fisher / Getty Images)
Eric Nehm is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Milwaukee Bucks. Previously, he covered the Bucks at ESPN Milwaukee and wrote the book "100 Things Bucks Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." Nehm was named NSMA's 2022 Wisconsin Sports Writer of the Year. Follow Eric on Twitter @eric_nehm
