The Milwaukee Bucks have the Indiana Pacers’ numbers when it comes to their regular season series but Doc Rivers remains wary.
The Bucks enter the first round series as a fifth seed against the no. 4 Pacers. They have the series tie-breaker against Indiana but failed to get it since they have a worse record.
They beat the Pacers three times out of four but that numbers is out of the window now that they are playing a series with bigger things at steak. Pacers scored more than 110 points in all those four games.
Rivers has favorable opinion on their defense in the last eight games, all of them they won. However, he still has a problem in one area.
This area is where Indiana excels.
“I thought we did a really good job the other night in transition D,” Rivers said as quoted by Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “I thought it was a big game, and we showed we could do it.
“Listen, we play Indiana. If we’re not good in transition D, we’re not going to be very good.”
Doc Rivers receives a lifeline
The team still has a few days left to watch films and review the Pacers.
Game plan could also change in around Game 2 or 3 of the series with the news of Damian Lillard getting cleared to play after healing from deep vein thrombosis.
Dame underwent blood-thinning medication to fix his ailment but he never disassociate himself from basketball. He was present in Bucks games and in their last regular season game against the Detroit Pistons, he asked for Pacers game films to watch from Doc Rivers.
“He called me literally the moment we beat the Pistons and he said, ‘can you send me Indiana film,'” he said.
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