A year ago, the Milwaukee Bucks were bounced by the Pacers in the first round of the playoffs with Giannis Antetokounmpo watching from the bench, out injured.

Milwaukee could be without its other star — Damian Lillard — for the 2025 playoffs as he is out with deep vein thrombosis in his calf. While Lillard has missed the last eight games and did not travel with the team on its current road trip, coach Doc Rivers is increasingly optimistic that Lillard will be back this season, something he talked about Thursday night (before the Bucks beat the 76ers), via Eric Nehm at The Athletic.

"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."

At the time of the diagnosis, the Bucks organization was optimistic that Lillard could return before the playoffs, and that optimism appears to be growing. While good for the Bucks, it's better news for Lillard and his family that he could be healthy enough to return to play.

The Bucks have gone 4-4 with Lillard out, missing the 24.9 points and 7.1 assists he brings each night. With that Milwaukee and Detroit are tied for the 5/6 seeds in the East with six games to play — and the last two games of the season for both teams are against each other.

The Bucks have a +5.4 net rating when both Lillard and Antetokounmpo are on the court. For a Bucks team that has been good but not threatening to the league's best this season — trading for Kyle Kuzma at the deadline didn't change that — they will need both on the court to have a chance to advance out of the first round.