Bucks News: Former Lakers Guard Went After Damian Lillard to Silence Darvin Ham

And silence Darvin Ham he did.

Apr 25, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham watches game action against the Denver Nuggets during the first half in game three of the first round for the 2024 NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images / Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

During a truly terrifying 122-99 Halloween blowout loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks All-Star point guard Damian Lillard submitted one of his worst NBA games ever. He scored just four points on 1-of-12 shooting from the field (0-of-6 from deep) and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line, dished out six assists (against one turnover), grabbed two rebounds and swiped one steal.

The man charge with covering him for much of the night, recently-promoted reserve point guard Scotty Pippen Jr., had a bit of a personal vendetta with one of the Bucks' coaches that inspired him to play particularly aggressive lockdown defense against the aging superstar point guard.

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"I definitely took that matchup personally. I grew up watching Dame a lot. One of the coaches over there didn't believe in me, so I had to show him that I could play defense," Pippen joked postgame in an interview, via GrindCityMedia (shared in a clip from the Instagram handle @basketballcoverage).

He was of course referring to his former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham, now an assistant under Bucks head coach Doc Rivers. Pippen was a sparsely-utilized two-way signing with L.A., before blossoming into a legit NBA player with the Grizzlies. He later reflected on how the Grizzlies had bounced back from a loss of their own to score a big win against a Milwaukee team that had been expected by many to contend in the Eastern Conference.

"This [is] the NBA, it's a lot of games," Pippen observed. "In this locker room, it's all we've got. And specially at home, we gotta defend our home court. So just coming in here and having energy, I feel like, games we lost, we had low energy, it led to the court. So coming in today, we had energy, I felt like the vibes were good, and we got the win."

In 26:53 off the bench for Memphis, Pippen scored 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the field (1-of-3 from deep) and 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line, three rebounds, one assist, and one steal while registering a +9 plus-minus. All-NBA Grizzlies point guard Ja Morant, meanwhile, notched a 26-point, 14-assist, 10-rebound triple-double, while shooting 9-of-16 from the field (2-of-5 from 3-point land) and 6-of-7 shooting from the foul line.

The 6-foot-1 Vanderbilt product is averaging 11.4 points on .493/.391/.824 shooting splits, 6.8 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals across eight contests with Memphis.

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