Milwaukee Bucks star Damian Lillard is expected to return to action next week in match 2 or match 3 of the team’s first round of the team against the Indiana Pacers, sources told ESPN.
The Bucks play the match 1 Saturday in Indianapolis and match 2 Tuesday. The series goes to Milwaukee for match 3 Friday.
After being diagnosed with a blood clot in his right calf just over three weeks ago, Lillard made an unprecedented recovery and was rid of deep venous thrombosis and stopped anti-Sang drugs on Thursday. Deep venous thrombosis is an abnormal clot in a vessel where the blood freezer blocks the flow on the way back to the heart.
Lillard participated in his first full training on Thursday and had to use a period of several days to increase his contact training sessions for a return. At this point, Lillard’s return is to find his basketball endurance.
Doctors told Bucks officials that Lillard’s recovery speed had never been seen before, but this happened due to early treatment, detection and specialists who work on him before a formal diagnosis, according to sources. Lillard started blood medication long before the March 25 diagnosis of blood clot.
“It could have been a career threatening,” said Bucks coach Doc Rivers, adding that it is a “boon” that Lillard will return for the playoffs.
Lillard, 34, played for the last time in a match on March 18, missing the last 14 games of the regular season. The Bucks went 10-4 in these games and finished the regular season on a sequence of eight consecutive victories.
An All-Star of NBA nine times, Lillard collected an average of 24.9 points and 7.1 assists in 58 games this season. He collected an average of 31.3 points, 5.0 assists and 3.3 rebounds during the playoffs for Bucks last season.
