In what was one of the best games of this season so far, Milwaukee got its first real ‘Dame Time’ moment since trading for the All-Star point guard.
With the Bucks trailing by two points and only 5.2 seconds remaining in overtime, Lillard passed the ball to Brook Lopez, who quickly returned it to him. Lillard wasted no time and sprinted up the court, stopping at the 32-foot mark to take a shot. The ball swished through the net, securing a thrilling 143-142 overtime victory for the Bucks against the Sacramento Kings at Fiserv Forum on Sunday night.
But Damian Lillard wasn’t the only one to generate headlines last night. Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown made news for employing a laptop to emphasize numerous calls that he discovered exasperating following his team’s overtime defeat.
In the early stages of the fourth quarter, Brown was ejected from the game after aggressively storming onto the court and vehemently shouting at referee Intae Hwang. Sacramento players had to intervene and guide him off the court.
During his postgame press briefing, Brown expressed his dissatisfaction with the officials, stating that their calls on Sunday night lacked consistency. Brown utilized the laptop to highlight a specific moment in the third quarter, wherein Damian Lillard was awarded three free throws due to a shooting foul committed behind the 3-point line. Subsequently, he compared this incident with a situation in the fourth quarter, where a defender from the Bucks hooked De’Aaron Fox during a drive, resulting in a no-call.
“The referees are human, and they’re going to make mistakes, but you just hope that there’s some sort of consistency and there’s some sort of communication between the ref. The refs tonight, they were great, they communicated with me all night. But in terms of consistency, you guys saw it right here. In my opinion, the consistency wasn’t here tonight.”
