Tuesday night’s matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Miami Heat pitted two of the brightest minds in the game against each other as Doc Rivers and Erik Spoelstra went toe-to-toe in a marquee coaching showdown.
Ultimately, it was Spoelstra who reigned supreme as he pretty much outcoached Rivers at every turn. The fact that a Jimmy Butler-less Heat side completely blew out the Bucks at the Fiserv Forum, 123-97, is a clear testament to this fact.
Coach Spo Got the Better of Doc Rivers, Milwaukee Bucks
Bucks shooting guard Malik Beasley (16 points, four triples, three rebounds, and three steals) had to give Spoelstra his flowers after the game. Beasley praised Coach Spo for his ability to properly react to Milwaukee’s defensive schemes, resulting in the Heat torching the Bucks all evening long:
“They just kept going and they wasn’t missing,” Beasley said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Coach (Erik Spoelstra) did a great job. They knew we were top-locking and sending everything down and he drew up backdoor plays. He’s elite at that. At the end we had to bring more effort. Sometimes we might have to get deeper in our bench to bring energy.”
Duncan Robinson (23 points, six triples), Nikola Jovic (24 points, five treys), Kevin Love (19 points, five triples), and Tyler Herro (19 points, three treys) all got going in this one as Milwaukee struggled mightily in defending the 3-point line.
No Excuses
Beasley did point out, though, that the Bucks were playing their second game in two nights. However, the veteran guard did not want to use this as an excuse for their deplorable performance on Tuesday night:
“They were waiting for us,” Beasley said. “They had three days off, two days off, this was our second set of a back-to-back. They came out and played harder than us. That’s no excuse but they did that.”
The Bucks were actually playing on their second straight back-to-back set, while this was just the second game in six nights for the Heat. Be that as it may, as Beasley said, there are just no excuses here.
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