Damian Lillard has torn his Achilles Tendon and will miss the remainder of the 2025 NBA Playoffs and more. The injury happened as Lillard’s Milwaukee Bucks played Game 4 of their first-round series versus the Indiana Pacers last night. Lillard was running towards a rebound in the first quarter and fell to the floor, his leg apparently giving out beneath him. Chris Haynes, long-time NBA media member, traditionally regarded as close to Lillard himself since Lillard’s days with the Portland Trail Blazers, confirmed the news on Bluesky:
Lillard played for the Blazers from the time he was drafted in 2012 through the end of the 2022-23 season, after which Portland traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks to play alongside MVP forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. When asked about the Lillard situation last night, Antetokounmpo said:
Obviously, seeing anybody going through something like that is tough. You don’t want anybody to get hurt and you don’t know how serious the injury is. You just wish for the best case scenario, but again, it doesn’t matter if he’s your teammate, your opponent, you don’t want to see somebody get hurt because I think we put so much time and effort into our jobs and try to be healthy and try to help our team. You don’t want to go down because you don’t know how it’s going to affect your career moving forward, but at the same time, now I’m talking about my teammate Dame. I’ve seen the last two years that we’ve been teammates, the things that he’s been through on the court and off the court. As I said previously, I have so much respect for him. A lot of people don’t see what Dame had to deal with, but I’ve been around him every single day and it’s hard. It’s hard being in his position, but he’s one of the toughest, mentally toughest guys I’ve ever been around and that’s why he is who he is and I think he’s going to overcome every obstacle that’s going to be in front of him. Everybody’s going to be there for him. No matter what the obstacle is for him, he’s going to overcome and we’re going to help him overcome.
Lillard averaged 24.9 points and 7.1 assists in 36.1 minutes per game over 58 appearances for the Bucks this season. He had recently returned from a rest due to deep vein thrombosis, suiting up for the second game of Milwaukee’s playoffs run. In his two fully-active games against Indiana he averaged only 10.5 points on 24.0% shooting in 34.5 minutes per appearance.
Lillard has two years remaining on his current contract, a Designated Veteran Exception which will earn him 35% of his team’s salary cap. The second year of that deal is a player’s option.