Damian Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks destroyed the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday night, winning by a final score of 123-85

For one night, the Bucks’ outstanding play obscured the team’s shortcomings; Lillard mentioned this in a recent interview when he and Antetokounmpo were compared to the championship-winning tandem of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray of the Denver Nuggets.

Antetokounmpo gave it a go vs. the Hornets despite injury concerns leading up to the game. The Bucks were booed by Philadelphia 76ers fans, but that didn’t deter Coach Doc Rivers from offering a retort.

It hasn’t always been the smoothest sailing for the Bucks recently, but Lillard believes he knows why.

Lillard has been with the Bucks for just this season and has immediately shown what made him one of the NBA’s Top 75 players of all-time despite never winning an NBA championship.

He compared he and ‘The Greek Freak’ to a Nuggets title-winning duo, saying that their chemistry is something to strive for going forward.

“I always use [Nikola] Jokić and Jamal Murray as an example, but they played together for six or seven years. They don’t even think about it no more.

“But in the beginning, they struggled. Jokić would have his moments and then Jamal Murray would struggle and then he would have his moments and then it would take away from him. And then once they figured it out, they went out there and won it.”

Lillard and Antetokounmpo have a chance to become the best duo in the NBA.

According to the former Portland Trail Blazer, the pair has a friendship that can allow them to become even better both on and off the floor.

“For us, I think we have a good relationship. But I think both of us, what it comes down to is we just got to keep putting time into it and just keep getting to know each other,” Lillard said.

“And then we both got to be willing to go to war for each other. And we’re going to have to give something up for each other at times. He’s had a 60-point game and I’m like, ‘It ain’t my night tonight.’ It ain’t my night. Or this team doesn’t have anything for him, I’m going to play to that. And then when they try to go to that, then I’m going to make them pay for trying to take that away. We got to have that type of relationship where we see it and we just do it.”