Grant turned around excitedly and ran back on defense toward the opposite end. On the other side of the court, Cousin was seeing red again.
"Fuck! Is everyone going to come after me? Does everyone think I'm not even worth looking at?"
"I'm Damian Lillard, damn it!!"
He went straight to Middleton, who had received the inbound pass, and called for the ball before bringing it over half court himself.
Lillard didn't even wait for Brook Lopez to get into position before launching another attack.
He didn't call for a screen. He went straight at Rose one-on-one.
After two consecutive crossover dribbles, he suddenly accelerated, driving left toward the paint. Then he used a Spin Move to pull back sideways and create space before attempting a long two-point Mid-range jumper to finish the play.
As the saying went, when it rained, it poured; when a ship was late, it met a headwind.
Rose was a step slow and failed to keep up with him, but Cousin somehow missed the shot anyway.
This was supposed to be one of Lillard's best ways to score. With no significant defensive pressure, he should've had a high chance of making it.
But the shot still didn't go in.
There were only two possibilities.
Either Cousin was terribly unlucky, and the shot had missed for some inexplicable reason despite his touch being fine.
Or his impatient state of mind had already affected Lillard's shooting without him realizing it...
Either way, it was clearly a win for the Knicks.
After securing the defensive rebound, Hartenstein immediately passed the ball to Rose.
Rose turned and pushed the ball up the court on a Fast Break, crossing half court before passing it to Grant, who was trailing the play.
Grant caught the ball and attacked the Bucks' paint