Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said that he’s to blame for Tuesday’s embarrassing loss against the Sacramento Kings. The veteran shot-caller claims that he failed to prepare his squad for what was the final game of their four-game road trip out West as the Bucks virtually already had one foot on the plane back to Milwaukee.
Despite Rivers’ attempt to claim full responsibility for their shocking 35-point loss, there’s no denying that the players also need to be held accountable for their unacceptable effort.
Doc Rivers Calls Out Milwaukee Bucks
Unsurprisingly, Rivers was not at all in a jovial mood in his post-game press conference. As always, the one-time NBA champion coach had to call a spade a spade as he got brutally honest about his team’s performance on the evening:
“Listen, it’s going to say they shot 53% — and listen, Malik (Beasley) had some wide open shots, so did Pat Connaughton — but that’s all fool’s gold,” Rivers said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “The ball didn’t move tonight. We took difficult shots. Sacramento overhelps a lot because they have to, and we didn’t take advantage of it at all. A few times we did it, we did get good shots. But I thought the way we played offensively I thought we chased points all night. Everybody. First play of the game I think a player pump faked, got in the paint. We told ‘em they run at you, kick it out. We take contested twos.”
Needless to say, more than a few things went wrong for the Bucks in this one, and the final score is an undeniable testament to this fact.
Rivers, however, was also quick to play down the blowout. His team did go 1-3 in their recent road stand, but the Bucks coach is still able to see a bit of silver lining in all this:
“I’m not going to overplay it. It’s one game, but we had two of them on this trip,” Rivers said, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “And (we) blew one. This trip could have easily been 2-2, but it’s not. It is what it is. And we have to deal with that.”
The Bucks return to action on Thursday in a home matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers. This is the same team that fired Rivers last summer, so you just know that there’s going to be some extra motivation there.
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