It was an ugly evening for the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday. The team was coming off a statement win against the Miami Heat on Monday night, only to be knocked back down to earth courtesy of a 130-111 shellacking at the hands of the Toronto Raptors.
Milwaukee Bucks Coach Comments on Team’s Defensive Problems
In their first four games of the season, Toronto averaged just 99.5 points per contest. The fact that they dropped 130 points on the Bucks on Wednesday is all you need to know about Milwaukee’s ineffectiveness on the defensive end.
The Raptors clearly got themselves out of whatever offensive funk they were in heading into Wednesday’s contest, and they have the Bucks’ defense — or rather, the lack thereof — to thank for that.
After the game, Milwaukee head coach Adrian Griffin was asked to comment on his team’s lackluster effort. In particular, the first-year shot-caller shared his thoughts on his team’s struggles on the defensive end. Griffin was completely honest in his response:
“I didn’t think we did a good job as far as keeping the ball in front and obviously points in the paint, as far as kickout threes,” Griffin said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “They were driving, spraying around. Just containing penetration and then having just the discipline to sit down and guard. I thought it was too many straight line drives in the paint and they were spraying around. … That’s partly on us as a staff, so I take blame for that. Just gotta do a better job of preparing them on a nightly basis.”
As Griffin said, he’s taking full responsibility for the Bucks’ lack of preparation. This was clearly evident from the get-go with Toronto mounting a 17-point lead in the first quarter, which ballooned all the way to 27 before halftime.
It’s good to hear Griffin not shying away from his mistakes. However, what would be even better if he was able to cut down on these errors. There’s obviously going to be a learning curve for the rookie coach, but you also can’t help but ask when enough will be enough.
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