If there is anything Doc Rivers and the Milwaukee Bucks have learned during their loss to the Orlando Magic in their regular season finale, it’s the fact that they are not a good iso team.
Rivers himself said as much as he reflected on their 113-88 defeat to the Magic in the absence of the injured Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Doc Rivers Admits Milwaukee Bucks’ Major Flaw
The Bucks have been too reliant on their isolation offense at times, and when you have one of the most unstoppable forces in the league in Antetokounmpo, it can be a solid offensive option. However, without the superstar forward on Sunday, the Milwaukee offense just didn’t click.
Milwaukee also had plenty of isolation plays against Orlando, particularly in the second quarter, but it ended up dooming them instead as they struggled to score. The Magic outscored the Bucks in the said period 25-12 to build an insurmountable lead.
For over seven minutes in the said quarter, the Bucks kept attacking with iso plays and consistently failed, forcing them to just score three points in the said span.
Rivers lamented on their inability to score in isolation, not to mention that they kept attacking the wrong guy, which only made things more difficult.
“I thought way too many isos, and not only did we iso, we iso’d the wrong guy — Jonathan Isaac changed the game for them,” Rivers explained, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “He’s long, he’s effective and we just kept setting pick-and-rolls with him instead of other guys. But, good lesson.”
Rivers then proceeded to admit that they are “not a good iso team.”
“I think we’ve proven that through the year. We are, at times, but I think we’re up nine and we had 10 or 11 straight possessions and we may have scored once. We may not have scored any of ’em. That’s something — I talked about at halftime, I talked about it before the game — that’s just something we have to catch ourselves. We have to be better in that.”
The Bucks average 8.1 points in isolation plays, which is the eighth-best in the NBA. But that is largely due to Antetokounmpo, who is averaging 3.3 points in isolation.
Sure enough, as Rivers highlighted, the Bucks need to find a way to score and not to be overreliant on it. They are not the best at it, and in the playoffs where opponents will take advantage of your weaknesses, they can’t really afford to have such bad games.
What’s Next for Doc Rivers, Milwaukee Bucks?
Doc Rivers and the Milwaukee Bucks have at least one week to prepare themselves before they face off against the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs. Hopefully, Giannis Antetokounmpo has already recovered from his calf injury by that point as well.
Should the Bucks be without Antetokounmpo, however, they will have to find other sources of points and do something differently from what they showed against the Orlando Magic. Granted that Damian Lillard was also not at his best after coming off a left adductor strain, but at the end of the day, they have to keep playing.
The Pacers have beaten the Bucks four times out of their five meetings, so it won’t be an easy battle. Both are not great defensive teams as well, so the winner of the series will surely be dictated by the offense.
With that being said, the Bucks can’t allow the Pacers to force them into isolation plays.
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