'Much more hope' Bucks' Lillard returns this season, Rivers says - ESPN

PHILADELPHIA — Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers said that Damian Lillard is feeling good as he recovers from deep vein thrombosis in his right calf and that there is «much more hope today» than there was a few days ago that he can return sometime this season.

Lillard, who missed his eighth straight game Thursday against the Philadelphia 76ers, did not make the road trip with the Bucks, with Rivers saying the team «decided against it» despite receiving a «great report» recently on Lillard's recovery.

"'Why mess with it?' was our thing, when flying or anything could affect that," Rivers said. «We have much more hope today than we did three days ago, I can tell you that. And so we're going to take everything that we can do to see if there's a way we can get him back.»

Milwaukee announced last week that Lillard would be out indefinitely after being diagnosed with the issue in his right calf. That differed from the immediate diagnosis of San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, who was ruled out for the season in February after deep vein thrombosis was diagnosed in his right shoulder.

The regular season ends in 10 days, and the playoffs will begin in 16 or 17 days, depending on whether the Bucks will open play on April 19 or April 20.

In the meantime, Rivers said the Bucks are fully preparing for the likelihood that Lillard will not return and how the team will have to alter its approach if he doesn't.

«There's no balance,» Rivers said when asked how the team would straddle the chances of him coming back or not. «You work on what we don't have… because there's no guarantee we are going to have him.

»We get him back, we know how to play. But we don't know how to play in the long term without him. And so it's really the nine