Damian Lillard: 'I Got Confidence' Bucks Will 'Hit Our Stride' Despite Struggles

Damian Lillard isn't concerned about the problems that have plagued the Milwaukee Bucks so far impacting them for the entire season.

Speaking to ESPN's Jamal Collier, Lillard expressed "confidence" the team will be able to "hit our stride" because they're still in a good position despite some of those issues:

"You want to be productive, I want to do what I always do. I still have games and times where I feel like, man, I'm still kind of ironing it out. The thing that I think about all the time is that we've got to give ourselves grace to know that's what the regular season is for. Especially with a trade this big and this much newness is happening.

"We've been winning through it. We've been finding a way. We just want to hit our stride and for it to click when it should. I got confidence that that will happen."

It's not often that a team with a 32-15 record would seem to be in disarray, but that's felt it's been the case for the Bucks. Their defense has been a problem all season. The fit with Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo hasn't been totally smooth.

The biggest indication something wasn't right came on Jan. 24 when head coach Adrian Griffin was fired 43 games into his first season.

Per The Athletic's Shams Charania, Sam Amick and Eric Nehm, the front office made the call to fire Griffin based on a number of factors, including the "severe decline of their once-elite defense" and "flawed use" of Lillard alongside Antetokounmpo.

There's also the pressure everyone in the organization is feeling to win a title after taking the big swing to acquire Lillard, but growing concerned it wasn't going to happen based on how they were playing under Griffin.

Doc Rivers was hired to replace Griffin and made his debut in Monday's 113-107 loss to the Denver Nuggets. It's going to take more time to get Lillard and Antetokounmpo operating on the same page after making a coaching change.

The track record for both players is so strong that it would be a surprise if they don't figure things out, at least offensively. There's no obvious answer for what ails the Bucks defense that ranks 19th in rating and 24th in points allowed per game.

Milwaukee needs Lillard and Antetokounmpo to be the best version of themselves if it wants to compete with the Boston Celtics as the top team in the Eastern Conference.

Lillard is averaging 25.1 points per game, but he's on pace to have one of his least efficient shooting season with a 42.7 percent field-goal percentage and 34.7 percent success rate from three-point range.