After a rough start to the season, the Milwaukee Bucks have steadily climbed up the Eastern Conference standings. Milwaukee has won 15 of its last 21 games and sits fifth in the conference with a 17-14 record. While most of the credit for the Bucks’ resurgence should fall on the shoulders of Giannis Antetokounmpo, resurgent play from point guard Damian Lillard is a major factor as well.
Lillard looks a lot more comfortable than he did in his first season in Milwaukee, when he took a couple of months to play himself into shape after being traded from the Portland Trail Blazers. In 24 games so far this season, he’s averaged 25.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 7.6 assists on 44-37-92 splits.
Tonight, Lillard and the Bucks will welcome the new-look Brooklyn Nets to Milwaukee for an 8 p.m. ET clash at Fiserv Forum.
On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Bucks are 14-point favorites and the point total is set to 221. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bet centered around Dame Time.
Best Damian Lillard Prop Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook
Damian Lillard 25+ Points (-105)
While the Nets have been surprisingly competitive this season, it can mostly be attributed to shooting guard Cam Thomas, one of the league’s premier isolation scorers. Brooklyn’s defense has still suffered, as it’s allowing 116.2 points per 100 possessions, the sixth-most of any team in the league. Plus, the Nets just traded away their best defender, power forward Dorian Finney-Smith, in a clear move towards the bottom of the standings, and two-time All-Defensive honoree Ben Simmons has also been ruled out for tonight’s game.
To replace Finney-Smith, Brooklyn opted for the Los Angeles Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell, who broke out in his first stint with the Nets, making his only All-Star appearance in 2019. Throughout his career, Russell has always been a significantly negative defender, and although he has recorded a 2.0 defensive box plus-minus so far in 2024-25, he is still far from a perimeter stopper, especially not against a three-level scorer like Lillard. This season, opponents have shot 3.7 percentage points better than expected when guarded by Russell, the third-worst figure among the Lakers’ regular rotation pieces. In 19 career games against Russell, Lillard has averaged 30.1 points.
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skills and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
