In case you missed it, the Milwaukee Bucks decided to field a pseudo G-League roster today against the Oklahoma City Thunder as Doc Rivers rested Giannis Antetokounmpo and two other starters.
The remaining players tried their might to compete but just like what some dismayed Bucks fans expected, they never had a chance right from the start, against a team like the Thunder that is currently the best team in the Western Conference.
The game is a scheduled loss, the starting players have rested, and now they are moving on to the next one.
OKC and Bucks had identical scores in first and second quarter, 39-22. The only quarter the young Bucks won was the fourth quarter, 21-9.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led his team again by scoring 34 points in just 23 minutes, followed by 21 points by Ousmane Dieng from the bench.
As for the Bucks, young guards AJ Johnson and Ryan Rollins made the most out of the opportunity given to them by 13 and 16 points, respectively.
Doc Rivers wanted more rest for Giannis Antetokounmpo
Rivers initially thought the OKC absence for the likes of Giannis, Damian Lillard, Brook Lopez, and Khris Middleton is not enough. He tried to devise a plan that will give them more resting hours.
That plan, however, is sort of illegal.
“I can’t get things back, but I used to do this when the league wasn’t doing things (this way), but I really wanted to; my instincts told me to fly them directly to Charlotte today,” Rivers said after the loss to OKC.
“But, that’s a bad look and so I didn’t do that. And didn’t want to waste the owners’ money on fines. But that’s a real rest.”
That is not the mind of a desperate coach speaking though. He insisted that the team’s stars are still getting good rest.
“Hopefully we can get out here, tomorrow the gym will be open. We won’t practice, but guys go in, Giannis and Dame got treatment all game, after the game, before the game. We used this as a rest day for us.”
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