The Milwaukee Bucks can not seem to get proper underneath new head coach Doc Rivers.
The Bucks fell to 1-4 since Rivers took over for Adrian Griffin as head coach with a 114-106 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night time – much more regarding is that the Bucks have blown a lead in each of the four losses.
Within the nine-day, five-game highway journey that began after Rivers was hired on Jan. 26, the Bucks have blown leads of 19 factors (Jazz), 15 factors (Mavericks) and 13 factors (Nuggets) whereas dropping one spot to 3rd place within the Jap Convention standings.
The Bucks led the Suns by seven factors within the newest loss, however it is perhaps essentially the most excusable of the bunch. All-Star guard Damian Lillard and heart Brook Lopez had been out and ahead Khris Middleton left the sport within the first quarter with an ankle sprain.
“The boldness is rising, you possibly can see it,” Rivers told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Made a pair errors, which is okay, however you possibly can see the boldness, you possibly can see the speaking … the defensive confidence is totally rising. That is an enormous factor for this group. If they’ll get that confidence, that takes us to a distinct degree.”
It needs to be no shock Rivers appears hyper-focused on protection. Griffin’s struggles to get the Bucks on the identical web page defensively had been an enormous a part of what led to his ouster simply 43 video games into his first season and the group at present ranks No. 24 in group protection with a mean of 119.8 factors per recreation.
Milwaukee (33-18) opens a four-game house stand on Thursday night time in opposition to the Minnesota Timberwolves.