Pacers' Rick Carlisle Reveals How Giannis Antetokounmpo Has Gotten Better Without Damian Lillard

The Indiana Pacers are heading into the 2025 NBA Playoffs with a tough match up: the Milwaukee Bucks.

This series will be hard largely because of the Bucks' star player Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had another MVP-caliber season where he averaged 30.4 points, 11.9 total rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.2 blocks, and 0.9 steals per game across 67 games.

What's particularly surprising is that he actually got better when Damian Lillard, Milwaukee's other top scoring option, was out indefinitely after suffering deep vein thrombosis, also known as a blood clot.

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In the six games Antetokounmpo played in April without Lillard, he averaged 31.8 points, 12 rebounds, and 11.8 resists. Four of these games were triple-doubles.

Needless to say, Giannis is coming into this series with an astounding confidence. And Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle is seemingly aware of that.

“During this period where Dame has been out, he’s been seeing consistent double teams, so he’s just continued to evolve as a great player,” Carlisle said, per Steve Megargee of Yahoo! Sports. "He’s mixing in the assist, the laser passes, the skip passes cross-court which are very difficult to deal with when you’re double-teaming him, and his shooting has gotten better and better.”

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If the Pacers want to come out with the win, they're going to have to find a way to contain Antetokounmpo, and it may be harder than ever. For the last two seasons, Giannis had to miss the playoffs due to injury. Now, he seems hungrier than ever.

“Watching the game on the bench is not fun,” Antetokounmpo said. “It’s not fun. Maybe in 20 years, I can put on a polo or a suit — I don’t know what the coaches wear — and watch it from the bench. But now I’m just happy that I’m out there and I’m in the heat of the battle and I’m able to get my hands dirty and help my team win.”

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