According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Milwaukee Bucks could see the return of Damian Lillard very soon. In fact, there is a concrete timeline of when he could return.

After his recent progress on treatment for deep vein thrombosis, Lillard has a real shot of playing in Game 2 or Game 3 of the first round. With him being out since March 18th, nobody knew exactly how serious or how long he would be out for.

Game 2 is on Tuesday, with Game 3 being on Friday. With the doctors giving him a clean bill of health, Lillard can now ramp up the contact practices and set his sights on playing as soon as next week.

Tremendous news came out featuring Damian Lillard and his current blood clot situation, and that is the fact he has been cleared of his deep vein thrombosis (DVT for short).

While he cannot play in Game 1 against the Indiana Pacers, the talented veteran can resume contact workouts and begin ramping himself up for games in the future.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Lillard is no longer required to take blood-thinning medication. In just over three weeks, Lillard has been able to be medically cleared. This development is something doctors never have seen before.

The medical professionals told Milwaukee that this was due to early treatment, detection of the issue, and having specialists being able to treat Lillard even before a formal diagnosis.

The Bucks first round matchup is against the Pacers, which will be an exciting series. Their contest begins Saturday.

According to Chris Haynes, the Milwaukee Bucks will be without Bobby Portis for the next 25 games due to violating the NBA’s Anti-Drug Policy. He took a banned substance.

Per Portis’ agent, Mark Bartelstein, the 30-year-old “unintentionally took a pain medication called Tramadol, thinking he was taking a pain medication called Toradol.”

With Milwaukee only having 29 games left in the season, Portis is essentially missing the remainder of it, with only four eligible games left.

In 46 games, he averaged 13.7 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 25.2 minutes.

Here is the full statement from his agent:

“I am devastated for Bobby right now because he made an honest mistake and the
ramifications of it are incredibly significant.

“Bobby unintentionally took a pain medication called Tramadol, thinking he was taking a pain medication called Toradol. Toradol is an approved pain medication that he has used previously and that teams and players use for pain and inflammation at times. Tramadol, however, is not an approved pain medication and was just recently added to the banned substance list this past spring. The Tramadol pill he took came from an assistant of his, with a valid prescription for the painkiller, which he mistakenly told Bobby was Toradol. This was, again, an honest mistake that was made because of the similarity in the names of the drugs and the fact they both serve a very similar purpose. Bobby was using this anti-inflammatory pain-reducing medication to deal with an elbow injury he had this past fall and believed he was taking Toradol to alleviate some pain in preparation for that night’s game.

“Bobby is a great person, teammate and professional, and has a wonderful reputation in our league, his communities, and his team. There are no bigger fans of the NBA than Bobby and I, and we are grateful to have closely and collaboratively worked with the NBA on countless occasions. We support the league’s anti-drug policy and its purpose in having a fair, competitive, healthy landscape for our athletes as it relates to drugs of abuse, performance enhancing issues, etc. Bobby Portis is absolutely not a drug abuser. Bobby works tirelessly on increasing his performance in all natural, legal, healthy ways, but he made a mistake and took a pill that unknowingly he should not have. Today, in this instance, I am so deeply disappointed that the NBA chooses to interpret its policy so strictly, and that the policy does not allow for a different result for an honest mistake with pure intentions.

“Bobby loves being a part of the NBA and he loves being a role model and a true ambassador for the Bucks and the city of Milwaukee. This has been incredibly difficult for him, but he will accept this penalty with grace and turn this into a great opportunity to improve and further build his reputation and performance in every way, both on and off the court.”