Damian Lillard gets the headlines, but don’t forget about Khris Middleton

Milwaukee was on Dame Time for the first 24 minutes of its playoff opener.

In his first postseason game as a member of the Bucks, Damian Lillard scored 35 points, all of which came in the first half, to propel his team to a 109-94 win and a 1-0 series lead over the Indiana Pacers in their Eastern Conference opening-round series. Lillard deserves all the love coming his way.

But don’t forget about Khris Middleton.

The Bucks need Khris Middleton if they hope to win a championship

Middleton scored 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out 4 assists and finished a team-high plus-25 in the win over the Pacers. He was easily Milwaukee’s second-best player, a role he’s become accustomed to during his time alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Khris Middleton is so damn crisp in the midrange it’s unreal. CRISP. pic.twitter.com/wosEeV0gvF

— Ben Sig 🚬 (@sig_50) April 22, 2024

It’s easy to forget, though, that Milwaukee wouldn’t have won the 2021 NBA Championship without clutch performances from Middleton.

The now-32-year-old averaged 24.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the East semifinals against Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets. That included a 38-point, 10-rebound, 5-assist, 5-steal stat line in a crucial Game 6 win that got the Milwaukee Bucks to a Game 7. He shot 11-of-16 from the field, 5-of-8 from three and 11-of-12 from the free-throw line that night.

Despite dealing with injuries amid a down 2023-24 regular season, Middleton is still vital to any hopes Dame and Giannis have of winning an NBA title, a fact former NBA vet Chandler Parsons reiterated on FanDuel TV (h/t Bucks Zone):

[Middleton] is the key. He was huge in the title run before, and he’s huge now.

It’s a great luxury to have because this is another guy — he was their closer when they won that championship. The ball was in his hands, he was the one to go get a bucket.”

He’s always been the Robin to Antetokounmpo’s Batman. Now he might be the Robin to Lillard’s Batman and Giannis’s Superman. But Milwaukee’s stars need Middleton. The win over the Pacers proved it, even if Dame garnered all the headlines.

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