MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee's Damian Lillard is listed as questionable for Game 2 of the Bucks’ first-round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday, another step forward for the seven-time All-NBA guard after missing the past month.
The Bucks had announced Thursday that Lillard was off blood-thinning medication and cleared for full basketball activity after dealing with deep vein thrombosis in his right calf. The Bucks could use Lillard after they shot 9 of 37 from 3-point range in a 117-98 Game 1 loss at Indiana.
The injury report upgrading Lillard to questionable came out Monday after coach Doc Rivers already had spoken to reporters. Rivers said he didn’t know whether Lillard would play Tuesday but noted that 34-year-old had been making progress.
“We didn’t do a lot of live stuff today, but he did everything today,” Rivers said after Monday’s practice. “He’s just progressing. He looks good.”
Because the Bucks had two days off between Games 1 and 2, they returned to Milwaukee to practice before heading back to Indianapolis for Tuesday’s game.
Lillard last played in a game on March 18. The Bucks announced a week later that he was dealing with deep vein thrombosis, an abnormal clot within a vessel where the congealing of blood blocks the flow through on the way back to the heart.
While he was on blood-thinning medication, Lillard couldn’t do much from a basketball standpoint beyond shooting free throws, though he said specialists eventually permitted him to do some exercises such as lifting weights. Because of his lack of basketball activity over the last month, Lillard was going to need time to get himself playoff ready even after doctors cleared him.
“I was able to be active and do some stuff and then I got cleared to be on the court, and I was able to do some hard workouts and do some conditioning and stuff like that,” Lillard said Friday. “So we’ll see. The moment that I feel good about it, I’m not going to be waiting and all of that. The moment that I feel I can go, I’m going to go.”
The Bucks went 3-1 against the Pacers during the regular season, with Lillard playing each of those games and averaging 18.3 points, 9.3 assists and 5.5 rebounds while shooting 35.5% from the floor and 38.9% on 3-point attempts.
Lillard appeared in 58 games during the regular season and ranked 10th in the league in both scoring (24.9) and assists (7.1) while earning his ninth All-Star Game selection.
Although he didn’t play Saturday, Lillard was on the bench and even got a technical foul late in the game after exchanging words with Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton during a timeout.
Haliburton, a two-time All-Star, expects to be matching up with Lillard on the floor at some point in this series.
“It can happen at any time, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened tomorrow,” Haliburton said. “So we’ve got to be prepared for whatever that is, understanding that in the playoffs, it ain’t about individual performances, it’s about winning.”
AP Sports Writer Michael Marot in Indianapolis contributed to this report.
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FILE - Milwaukee Bucks' Damian Lillard shoots a free throw during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Orlando Magic, March 8, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash, File)
DENVER (AP) — A soldier present at an after-hours nightclub where more than 100 immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally were taken into custody last weekend has been charged with distributing cocaine, court records show.
Staff Sgt. Juan Gabriel Orona-Rodriguez, who is assigned to Fort Carson, an Army post near the illegal club in Colorado Springs, was arrested Wednesday evening, the FBI said in a statement.
Orona-Rodriquez has been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to an arrest affidavit. It said he allegedly sold cocaine to an undercover agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration days before the raid.
It wasn't immediately known if Orona-Rodriguez — a member of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team in the 4th Infantry Division — had a lawyer ahead of an expected court appearance Thursday.
The FBI said the arrest followed an investigation by the DEA, the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and officials at Fort Carson.
More than 300 law enforcement officers and officials from multiple agencies participated in Sunday’s operation at the nightclub, which had been under investigation for months for alleged activities including drug trafficking, prostitution and “crimes of violence,” said Jonathan Pullen, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Rocky Mountain Division.
Cocaine was among the drugs found, Pullen said at a news conference.
Orona-Rodriquez was one of about 17 active-duty U.S. Army service members who were at the club, known as Warike, when it was raided early Sunday, the affidavit said.
He appears to have held a leadership role in a business that provides armed security at nightclubs, including at Warike, according to the document. However, it did not say whether he was working security there at the time of the raid. It notes that he had been warned by his commanding officer this spring that he could not work for the security company.
Rodriguez received more than a dozen Army awards during his almost nine years in service, including an Army Commendation Medal with combat device, which is earned during a deployment where the soldier was “performing meritoriously under the most arduous combat conditions,” according to Army descriptions of the award.
Of the 17 soldiers who were at the venue at the time of the raid, 16 were patrons and one was working there in a security role, a U.S. official said on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. Sixteen of the soldiers there were assigned to Fort Carson, the official did not know where the seventeenth was assigned.
Investigators suspect Orona-Rodriguez was getting cocaine from an unidentified Mexican citizen who is “unlawfully present in the United States without admission,” according to the affidavit.
President Donald Trump posted a link to the DEA video of the raid on his social media site, Truth Social. “A big Raid last night on some of the worst people illegally in our Country — Drug Dealers, Murderers, and other Violent Criminals, of all shapes and sizes,” the president wrote.
Associated Press writer Tara Copp in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, officers stop a patron from a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)
In this image taken from video released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a law enforcement officer with a weapon drawn is shown at a nightclub where a raid occurred Sunday, April 27, 2025, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration via AP)
