Giannis Antetokounmpo Had Inspiring Words for Damian Lillard After Devastating Injury

In a devastating turn of events, Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard suffered what appears to be a serious injury just minutes into the club's 129-103 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Game 4 on Sunday. Lillard stumbled while attempting to secure a rebound with 5:57 remaining in the first quarter, and was helped off the floor by members of the Bucks staff. Milwaukee is fearing a torn Achilles in his left leg.

Fans were heartbroken by Lillard's injury, knowing what the Bucks star overcame to return to the playoff series after missing the final 14 regular season games with deep vein thrombosis in his right leg. After the contest, Lillard's teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo shared an inspiring message for the nine-time All-Star.

"Obviously, seeing anybody go through something like that is tough," Antetokounmpo said. "You don't want anybody to get hurt and you don't know how severe the injury is. You just wish for the best-case scenario. But again, it doesn't matter if he's your teammate, your opponent—you never want to see somebody get hurt because I think we put so much time and effort into our jobs and try to be healthy and try to help our team."

"You don't want to go down because you don't know how it's going to affect your career moving forward. But at the same time, now I'm talking my teammate Dame. You know, the last two years that we've been teammates, the things that he's been through on the court and off the court. As I said previously, I have so much respect for him. A lot of people don't see what Dame had to deal with. But we're around him every single day and it's hard."

Despite the difficult road ahead for Lillard, Antetokounmpo believes he will persevere.

" It's hard being in his position, but he's one of the toughest, mentally toughest guys I've ever been around and that's why he is who he is. And I think he's going to overcome every obstacle that's going to be in front of him. Everybody's going to be there for him. No matter what the obstacle is for him, he's going to overcome and we're going to help him overcome."

As they await official word on the severity of Lillard's injury, Antetokounmpo and the Bucks will travel back to Indiana for Game 5 of the series facing a 3-1 deficit. Game 5 tips off Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET.