Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers speaks on blowout loss to Miami Heat: "Our offense played terrible tonight"
NBA
Tonight's matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat was a rematch of the round 1 series in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, and what was expected to be a tough, competitive matchup turned into an easy blowout victory for the defending Eastern Conference champs. The short-handed Heat with no Jimmy Butler dominated the Bucks 123-97 on the road, and there are questions about Doc Rivers and his squad.
The former 76ers head coach took over after Adrian Griffin was fired 43 games into the season. Since then, the Deer has gone 3-6 with Rivers leading the team. All eyes will be on them to make a deep playoff run after acquiring Damian Lillard this offseason and making a midseason coaching change.
In his postgame press conference, Doc stated that their offense played terrible tonight. Whenever they cut the deficit to single digits, his team either had a turnover or forced up a bad shot. The ball stayed stagnant for a bunch of possessions and since there was no ball movement, it was easy for the Heat to defend against them.
He also mentioned that they didn't attack the basket and settled for too many shots. His superstars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard combined for only 4 free throws (0 for the Greek Freak, 4 for Dame). This led to easy transition buckets for Miami that increased their lead.
Lastly, the lack of defensive effort was talked about. Miami made their rotations on defense on time, such as communicating and switching on pick and rolls. Meanwhile, Milwaukee was late on a lot of their rotations, which led to easy baskets for road team. The points off turnovers was 35 points to 14 points in favor of the team from South Beach, and this is one of many things that needs to be addressed moving forward.
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