The Milwaukee Bucks left Game 4 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoff series with the Indiana Pacers after injuring their left lower leg in the first quarter. He didn’t come back.
Lillard entered the locker room from the floor after suffering a contactless injury. There is fear that Lillard suffered from a torn Achilles, According to NBA Insider Chris Haynes.
“They’re going to do it [MRI] tomorrow. Obviously, it’s the lower limbs,” backs coach Doc Rivers said after the Pacers’ 129-103 victory. “To be honest, that’s not very promising.”
The seventh inning All-NBA player was behind the three-point line as the ball bounced back towards him. Lillard used his left hand to tilt the ball towards his teammate Gary Trent Jr., then went down and grabbed the lower part of his left foot around his ankle. He continued to sit on the floor as the play resumed at the other end of the courthouse.
Milwaukee’s Kyle Kuzma helped Lillard after the foul stopped playing. After that, Lillard began to cause his legs and had to help him enter the locker room from the court.
Lillard missed the Bucks’ final 14 regular season games and the first game of the series, dealing with deep venous thrombosis in the right calf. Lillard took off his blood thinning drug and was cleared to resume full basketball activity at the end of the regular season, returning to Game 2 action in the series on Tuesday.
Deep vein thrombosis is an abnormal thrombosis in a container that blocks flow on the way back to the heart.
“The guy is back for his team. I feel bad for him,” Rivers told reporters Sunday night. “This is tough, honestly. Clots, followed by, it’s just hard.
“He’s just such a great, funny guy.”
The Pacers led 15-12 when Lillard left and immediately made a 10-3 run. The Bucks were not really threatened since then as Indiana took a 3-1 series lead. Game 5 is set in Indianapolis on Tuesday.
“I’ve seen injuries deflate the team, but tonight it hurts,” Rivers said.
“My job or whatever we have over the next 40 hours is to get us upright again. Try to win one game in Indiana,” he added. “But now my brain is where the players are in the same place, and that’s what I think about Dame. That’s the human part of this job.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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