Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers’ return to Philly wasn’t one to remember — at least in terms of the not-so-warm welcome he received from the home supporters. However, all the negativity has been overshadowed by the fact that the Bucks absolutely blew out the Philadelphia 76ers on their own home floor, 119-98, allowing Rivers to record a much-needed win against his former team.
Needless to say, Coach Doc was pretty happy with the victory.
Doc Rivers Reacts to Milwaukee Bucks’ Win Vs. 76ers
Rivers coached the Sixers for two years before the team decided that it was in their best interest to part ways with the one-time champion shot-caller this past summer. While Philly now operates much differently under coach Nick Nurse, there’s no denying that Rivers still knows a lot about how this squad plays.
Following Sunday’s dominant win, Rivers admitted that he was concerned about how his team was going to deal with the opposition’s offense. In particular, Coach Doc was wary about how the Bucks were going to respond to the constant need to switch on the defensive end.
Well, not only did Milwaukee answer the call but according to Rivers, it was the most impressive effort he’s seen from his team on the defensive end thus far:
“Best of the year,” Rivers said, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “Because of all the teams, the way (the 76ers) play with the dribble handoffs and the weaves, I was really concerned about our switching. That’s what we’ve been really working on. And it was physical. Like, we don’t have foot speed, but we have power and length and we got our hands on them. That’s how we have to play defense.”
Milwaukee’s team effort, particularly on defense, resulted in the Sixers being held down to just 16 points in the fourth quarter.
As Rivers said, the Bucks have been working hard to make the necessary improvements on the defensive end, and to a certain extent, their performance on Sunday was a clear testament to how far they’ve gone so far.
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