Two seasons, two All-Star appearances for the Bucks guard
A nice bit of (somewhat expected) news hit the wire tonight: Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard has been named to the Eastern Conference All-Star reserves:
FROM SHAMS:
2025 NBA East All-Star reserves: Jaylen Brown, Pascal Siakam, Darius Garland, Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley, Damian Lillard, Tyler Herro.
— Shams Charania Tweets (& Other NBA News) (@shamsbot.bsky.social) 2025-01-30T23:38:29.496278+00:00
Lillard got off to a very hot start in early voting before tapering off while Jalen Brunson in particular ascended with the Knicks sustained success. Between Dame’s numbers on the season and staying power as a household name for basketball fans and players alike, he was a strong contender to get across the line for a ticket to San Francisco. It probably helped that he was name All-Star MVP in the 2024 game scoring 39 points (14-26 overall, 11-23 from three) with six assists.
This will be his ninth career All-Star nod in 13 seasons as a pro. He’s seen slight improvements with the Bucks in a number of statistical categories in 2024-2025 versus last season (in part due to the uptick in minutes he’s playing), although he remains off his scoring highs from his last season as a Blazer:
- 2023-2024: 35.3 MPG, 24.3 points (.424/.354/.920), 7.0 assists, 4.4 rebounds, .590 TS%
- 2024-2025: 36.4 MPG, 25.3 points (.452/.382/.922), 7.3 assists, 4.7 rebounds, .624 TS%
He and the team already secured NBA Cup hardware and looked to have found their footing as a group when the calendar flipped to 2025. Hopefully he can take the motivation of another acknowledgement of his level as a player relative to his peers to continue the positive momentum his game in particular has picked up over the past few weeks.
The All-Star Game will be held in the Chase Center on Sunday, February 16th, 2025. As a reminder, the format of the games themselves are a little different this season. In short, from the pool of 24 players available three teams will be drafted by TNT Analysts Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith. The fourth team will be the winner of the Rising Stars Challenge game the night before. There will be two semifinals and a final, with each game being first to 40. Yes, this is a real thing.
The draft for said teams will happen on February 6th live on national television. There remains a chance that Giannis Antetokounmpo will have to go against his Buck teammate for exhibition glory.
Congratulations to Dame!