Somehow, the Milwaukee Bucks failed to close out a three-point lead with 3.9 seconds versus the Pacers. With a snafu like that, you already know something went wrong.
After the game Doc Rivers had more than a few bones to pick with the way players and staff handled the final seconds.
Milwaukee Bucks Pay for Flawed Positioning on Penultimate Play Vs Indiana Pacers
One of the questions Rivers answered in his postgame media session was whether he considered using his last timeout, which Milwaukee still had at that point, to review assignments for the upcoming inbounds play.
“No, we’ve seen it,” Doc said. “We’ve worked on it. We just lost him. That’s on us. I told our staff we got to have our guys prepared better for that. Now, we were off the bodies. You could see me screaming before the play. We were in trouble before the play started.”
Running from the backcourt, Tyrese Haliburton was able to streak open in the corner for a fadeaway three attempt on the inbounds pass, with Giannis Antetokounmpo the only one near enough to contest the shot. It was an awkward play to make, closing out on an open shooter in such a tight space, earnestly contesting while avoiding contact.
“There was no reason to switch, and we just did. He was open the whole play. There was miscommunication there, I always think that’s on me and on my stuff, not on our guys. And we’ll have to figure it out. Because that’s a play that should never happen,” Rivers said.
That, Coach, is an understatement. Every Bucks fan watching probably felt pretty good about a 3-point advantage with under four seconds to go.
Even after the miraculous shot, if Milwaukee had not spent their final timeout challenging whether Haliburton’s left foot touched out of bounds, they would have been able to move the ball pass halfcourt to at least get a better look at a final attempt of their own.
Lost Challenge Nails Bucks’ Coffin
On the last play of the game, 3.4 seconds up on the clock and Milwaukee trailing by a point, Giannis inbounded the ball from under the opposite basket. Gary Trent Jr. flipped it back to him as Giannis sprinted down the floor, reaching the three-point line in time to hoist an off-balance shot before the buzzer. It barely grazed the rim.
Advancing the ball to their own side of the floor would have almost certainly produced a higher quality look. Losing the challenge ended up costing the Bucks big-time. Doc wasn’t happy about that, either:
Listen, I got to trust my guys. That’s why we took so long, because we had a timeout. I said are we 100% sure. They were very sure he stepped out of bounds. I guess we were wrong, and that can’t happen. On challenges at the end of a game, you got to know it. You got to get it right. Because it gave us three seconds to score, down one. So those are two mistakes by us, and we lost the game because of it.
The loss drops Milwaukee to 36-28, the same record as the Pacers’. Coming in a game up, Tuesday was a missed opportunity to go up 2 games on Indiana in the standings; instead the bitter rivals are even. The Bucks cling to the 4-seed in the East on the thread of tiebreaker rules. If their positions hold, they will face each in round one of the playoffs for the second straight season.
Despite the crushing defeat, the Bucks will have to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and prepare to host the Lakers Thursday at the Fiserv Forum. Tip off is at 6:30 CT.
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