MILWAUKEE — As the seconds wound down at the end of the first quarter on Sunday in the Milwaukee Bucks’ 109-94 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series, the Fiserv Forum crowd stood up in anticipation. Damian Lillard dribbled between his legs a few times to find a rhythm, then stepped back and buried a buzzer-beater from 28 feet.

“This is what y’all brought me here for,” Lillard — whose 35 points for the game all came in the first half — told the ecstatic crowd as he walked back to the bench with a season-high for points in a quarter with 19.

DAME BEATS THE Q1 BUZZER.

He’s got 19 points and counting. pic.twitter.com/DvvcGDKaXJ

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) April 21, 2024
Though Lillard’s shot only put the Bucks up by nine at the end of the first frame, it felt like a dagger. The Pacers, who looked out of sorts from the opening tip, never recovered, while Lillard only got better in the second quarter.

“He carried us,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “He was unbelievable. I thought he played under control, but very aggressive, which is the way we wanted him.”

By the time Lillard checked back into the game in the middle of the second quarter, the Bucks’ second unit had pushed the lead up to 20. Lillard took it from there. Over a thrilling five-minute stretch, he poured in 16 more points to push the Bucks’ advantage to 27 at the half and eliminate any doubt about the game’s outcome.

The Pacers aren’t known for their defense, but the level of shot-making from Lillard was outrageous at times. Five of his six 3-pointers were from 27 feet or further — the NBA 3-point line is 23 feet and nine inches away from the basket — and three were off the dribble.

Lillard’s 35 points were a Bucks franchise playoff record for points in a half and tied for the eighth-most points he scored in a game all regular season. Perhaps the most telling stat, however, was that they were also more than Jrue Holiday (33) or Eric Bledsoe (27) ever had in an entire playoff game with the Bucks.

As Lillard said, performances like this one were indeed why the Bucks made the blockbuster trade to flip Holiday for him last summer. His postseason pedigree and ability to carry the offense for stretches, games and even entire series gave the Bucks a higher ceiling than previous iterations of the team.

Whether this version of Lillard was going to show up in the playoffs, though, was unclear after a somewhat inconsistent regular season. A 2-of-14 showing in last Sunday’s finale and an array of minor injuries — groin, adductor, Achilles — that kept him off the practice court early in the week only raised more questions.

Lillard admitted he was “concerned” about some of the nagging issues, but said the time off was “huge” to get his body feeling right. Once that was taken care of, everything else fell into place.

“His confidence is literally unshakeable,” Rivers said. “It just really is. It’s funny, he loves boxing, that’s where we kinda connect. He’s got that prize fighter-like mentality. It’s almost like he was training for the fight, and then when the bell rings he seems to be ready. That’s his mentality and that’s how he plays.”

Lillard never scored in the second half, but he didn’t need to as the Bucks coasted to a series-opening win without Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is sidelined indefinitely with a calf strain. The Game 1 win may allow the Bucks to be more cautious with their superstar, but Rivers said pre-game that he has no clarity on when he’ll be back.

As long as the two-time MVP remains out, the Bucks are going to need the first half version of Lillard to show up. If he sticks around when Antetokounmpo returns, even better. Lillard, who hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2021 and has never won a ring, has all the motivation to ensure that happens.

“Last two years not being in the playoffs, it sucked,” Lillard said. “It was early vacations. Last year I went to Coachella. I ain’t ever been able to go to Coachella, I was playing in the playoffs every year. Just having that long summer, I was over that.

“Being able to be in a playoff series on a championship team and a championship organization, knowing that we got an opportunity for [a title], I think that was the thing I was looking forward to the most. I moved my life and moved my career and did all of these things and made my life a little bit harder away from basketball for this opportunity. Coming into it, in my mind and in my heart, I was like I can’t come this far and not at least put everything into it and put my best foot forward.”

The NBA playoffs have officially begun, and as always, that means the regular season’s awards will soon be handed out. Ballots were officially due on the evening of April 16, before the first Play-In game began, and over the past few seasons, the NBA has begun naming finalists. These finalists are the top-three vote getters for each award, and on Sunday, the NBA announced who is in the running for its seven highest-profile awards. They are as follows:

Most Valuable Player: Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert, Victor Wembanyama and Bam Adebayo
Rookie of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren and Brandon Miller
Most Improved Player: Coby White, Alperen Sengun and Tyrese Maxey
Sixth Man of the Year: Naz Reid, Malik Monk and Bobby Portis
Clutch Player of the Year: Stephen Curry, DeMar DeRozan and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Coach of the Year: Mark Daigneault (Thunder), Chris Finch (Timberwolves) and Jamahl Mosley (Magic)
Wembanyama (Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year) and Gilgeous-Alexander (MVP and Clutch Player of the Year) are the only players to be named finalists for multiple awards. Neither are favored to win both, however, as Wembanyama is currently only the betting favorite for Rookie of the Year, while Gilgeous-Alexander rates No. 3 at most books for both of his nominations.

Jokic, a two-time MVP winner, is expected to take home his third award this season. Similarly, Gobert is also in line for a dynastic victory as yet another Defensive Player of the Year award would be his fourth. All other winners would be first-timers, with the early returns favoring Wembanyama, Maxey, Reid, DeRozan and Daigneault, though not every voter has made their ballot public.

The NBA does not release an official schedule of when each award will be given. However, recent years have seen them handed out in the first and second rounds. Last season, the first award was given on the first Monday of the first round, with Jaren Jackson Jr. winning Defensive Player of the Year, while MVP was announced for Joel Embiid ahead of Game 2 of his second-round series against the Boston Celtics. With all the votes tallied and the finalists named, we should know this season’s award winners very, very soon.

The recruitment of Joel Embiid was one of the biggest stories leading up to the 2024 Olympic basketball tournament, which will be held in Paris. Embiid, a native of Cameroon, considered his birthplace as well as France, where he has some family, and the United States, where he lives and plays as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Embiid has never lived in France, going directly from Cameroon to Florida where he played high school ball. But he speaks French fluently, and was reportedly interested in playing for the French national team on the international stage. In fact, a letter Embiid allegedly wrote to French president Emmanuel Macron in which he expressed a desire to play for France and be made a naturalized citizen was recently leaked, though neither Embiid himself nor the French government have confirmed the letter’s legitimacy.

Embiid ultimately was granted French citizenship in 2022, but he wound up deciding to play for Team USA in 2023. Several members of the French basketball community have expressed disappointment in his decision.

“Team USA, with him, who can beat you? Come on, nobody,” Jean-Pierre Siutat, president of the French Basketball Federation, told The Athletic’s Joe Vardon. “This is an easy way for him to get an Olympic medal.”

Such frustration is to be expected given how close France came to beating Team USA in 2021. However, one former French olympian took things to an entirely new level. Do you remember Frederic Weis? If not, this clip should jog your memory.

In France, it is known as “Le dunk de la mort.” In English, that translates to “the dunk of death.” Weis, selected No. 15 overall in the 1999 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks, never played in the NBA. But he will forever be remembered for what an NBA star did to him on the international stage. After the dunk Vince Carter inflicted on him in the 2000 Olympics, Weis harboring some feelings of ill-will towards Team USA is a bit understandable.

When Team USA’s interests conflict with his home country’s, well, you get the take he recently dropped on his radio show at the French station RMC. At first, he expressed his anger with Embiid seemingly using his athletic gifts to gain French citizenship in a way that is not available to most prospective immigrants or naturalization candidates.

“I consider this boy a great player as much as he is a dirty guy,” he said, according to Eurohops.net. “I hate him for the things that he did. I think he doesn’t have any respect for France and also for all the people who are asking for a French passport and don’t get it. And under the pretext that he is a great athlete, he got it. I find it scandalous, I find it embarrassing. I don’t care about his excuses, cause they are his words, and his words mean nothing.”

This is already a pretty intense position, but trust me, Weis wasn’t done. His solution? Ban Embiid from the Olympics. In fact, don’t even allow him into the country when they begin. “I would take away from him the French nationality and I would ban him from entering France,” Weis said. “You will not play in the Olympics. You will come to the airport with Team USA and we will say: You don’t have the right to enter the territory, go to your home. You are Cameronian, you are American, you are not French, go away.”

There is an interesting conversation to be had about FIBA’s naturalization rules, which currently allow for each team to include one naturalized player on their roster in international competitions. This rule theoretically gives USA Basketball a bit of an advantage, because the best basketball players in the world all play in the United States, and therefore have easier access to talent in this way.

Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and Tim Duncan all played for Team USA as naturalized citizens. Embiid, like all of them did, lives and works in the United States. His son was born here, and as he explained when he chose Team USA, he wants to win gold to honor his son’s home country. Embiid was not born in the United States, but he is very much American, and if nothing else, he has a stronger connection to the United States than France, where he has never lived. There’s an argument to be made that Team USA has access to so much talent already that allowing them bring naturalized players to competitions further stacks the deck in their favor.

But that’s not the argument Weis, or France, is making. Their anger is expressed at Embiid not for choosing Team USA, but for not choosing France. Weis’ solution is ridiculous once you give it any thought. Heck, why stop at Embiid? Why not just ban the entire Team USA roster while you’re at it? Germany just won the World Cup. They’re pretty tough, ban them too. And let’s throw Canada, Slovenia and Serbia on the list too, just to be safe.

We’re headed for one of the most exciting Olympic basketball tournaments in history. The newfound rivalry between Embiid and France is going to be a major storyline in that tournament, especially since it will be held in Paris. If Weis is this mad now, the crowds are going to be crazy when Team USA actually faces France. Fortunately for Team USA, the odds of France creating an international incident by barring Embiid’s entry appear to be minimal.