Damian Lillard reacts to Giannis Antetokounmpo bagging Eastern Conference Player of the Week
Milwaukee Bucks star point guard Damian Lillard hyped up teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo. Lillard celebrated the 'Greek Freak' being named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for Week 5.
Lillard posted an image of Antetokounmpo in his Instagram story with his Week 5 stats. The eight-time NBA All-Star's IG Story is a re-post of an image that the Bucks put up on their team's IG page to congratulate him for the feat.
The star point guard included three "flexed bicep" emojis in his IG Story.
In the Western Conference, San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes was named the Player of the Week. Barnes earned the award after averaging 22.3 points and 8.7 rebounds on a 61.8% shooting clip.
Giannis Antetokounmpo averaged a double-double with 32.5 ppg, 10.8 rpg as well as 7.3 assists per game. He hit 61.2% of his shot attempts this past week.
This is the first time this season that either player has been named the NBA's Player of the Week.
The previous winners in the East were Franz Wagner, Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell and Jaylen Brown. In the West, the winners have been De'Aaron Fox, Nikola Jokic, Devin Booker and Anthony Davis.
Last season, Giannis won the Player of the Week award twice. The first was in Week 8 and again in Week 14.
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The Milwaukee Bucks have won six of their last seven games behind Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo's leadership
The Milwaukee Bucks had a slow start, winning only two of their first 10 games. However, they seem to be making up ground after that 2-8 start.
The Bucks won two straight games for the first time this season on Nov. 12 and Nov. 13. Those games were against the Toronto Raptors and the Detroit Pistons respectively. Since those back-to-back wins, they've been surging and have lost only once in their last seven games (Nov. 16 against the Charlotte Hornets).
Damian Lillard was unavailable during their back-to-back victories against the Raptors and their loss to the Hornets. However, since coming back, he has helped the Bucks to a four-game win streak.
In the past four games, Lillard has averaged 23.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 9.3 assists. He also lived up to his reputation as a crunch-time closer when he hit a game-winning layup to secure a one-point win (101-100) against the Houston Rockets on Nov. 18 to kick off the win streak.
While Damian Lillard has been putting in the work, Giannis Antetokounmpo has also been carrying his share of the load. In these past seven games, he has averaged 33.4 ppg, 10.9 rpg, 7.9 apg and 2.1 blocks per contest.