Bucks guard shows toughness by playing through noticeable injury in latest win

Tuesday night saw the Milwaukee Bucks pick up another great win as they beat the Atlanta Hawks 127-121.

It takes them to 35-25 following a three-game win streak and winning seven of their last eight. The impact of the new additions has been clear, but Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard still very much lead the team and things are falling in place around the duo.

The latter of the two came up clutch when it mattered, but took to Instagram to show off a nasty looking eye injury that he suffered after going up for a rebound and catching an elbow to the face. It was an injury you don't often see in basketball and Lillard looked more like he'd gone 12 rounds with an elite boxer.

Bucks' Damian Lillard shined even with his vision going blurry

After the game, he spoke to the media and said "I've never had my vision get blurry like that. I opened my eye and then I saw how it was blurry and it was like seeing triple so I called for a sub."

Lillard went to the bench in the first quarter but very quickly came back in the game and insisted he was never about to come out of the game. The point guard ended the game with 23 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and just one turnover. Despite the blurry vision for the majority of the game, he still shot 9-for-18 (50 percent) from the field, although his 3-point shooting did drop off.

Seeing the injury post-game just made it even more impressive as the Bucks were only up by one when Lillard and Kyle Kuzma came into the game with just over five minutes remaining. He added a basket of his own, and then with the Bucks up 123-121 with 30 seconds to play, he drove by Onyeka Okongwu. In traffic, he pulled off a brilliant reverse layup that was contested by two defenders and put the Milwaukee Bucks up by four.

It was another great team performance. The Bucks are well and truly surging following All-Star weekend. Alongside Lillard and Giannis, Kuzma, Brook Lopez, Gary Trent Jr. and Kevin Porter Jr. all added double digit points. AJ Green and Taurean Prince both scored eight. This just shows how good the depth is that guys like Porter can come in for 10 minutes and keep the team afloat

In the seven games since the All-Star break, Milwaukee's offense has been solid, but the defense has truly stepped up. During that span, they are sixth in the league with a 108.1 defensive rating, which shows that the younger and more athletic additions are paying off on both ends of the floor. This also has led to teams shooting just 44.5 percent against the Bucks and has them fifth in that category over the last seven games.

Lillard and Giannis as a partnership has really started to catch fire and become everything we dreamed it would be. Kuzma has been a brilliant addition as the third guy behind those two. Lopez has benefitted massively from more athletic players around him, and his play on both ends has returned to what we are used to.

If Lillard can do what he did on Tuesday with blurry vision, this Bucks team is a real threat. They are beginning to click at the right time and look set to be a team that people won't want to see in the postseason.

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