What’s New Doc? Bucks Coach Still Can’t Take Blame, Posing Red Flag

The Milwaukee Bucks haven’t been on their A-game and instead of taking the time to self-reflect or perhaps inspire the locker room, head coach Doc Rivers couldn’t resist and elected to play the blame game.

Amid a 5-5 streak in their last 10 games, the Bucks most recently collapsed when facing the Washington Wizards — the second-to-worst team in the Eastern Conference. Milwaukee allowed Washington to break open the third quarter with a 12-1 run, taking a 15-point lead while scoring 70 points in the paint to 56 from the Bucks. The loss dropped Milwaukee to a discouraging 18-20 away from home, marking the team’s sixth road loss in its last eight away games.

Rivers, who inherited a hot seat when hired by the Bucks back in January, couldn’t help but add to the career-long excuse-manafacturing highlight reel that’ve been his most notable postgame pressers.

“I don’t know. I think focus. I don’t know what it is,” Rivers told reporters after Tuesday night’s loss to the 15-61 Wizards, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “You know, it’s funny, I’ve actually been sitting back and watching everything. Not just our players, but our travel crew, everything and I’ve made a lot of notes. I will say that. I won’t share that. But we don’t bring the necessary professionalism, seriousness on the road. And that’s something that we can fix. And that’s something we’re going to have to fix.”

That’s a lot to unpack and (try to) make sense of.

Too tough 💪 pic.twitter.com/LlXd3S9F0A

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— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) April 3, 2024

So… to clarify. Rivers has been attentive to the team’s travel crew, among other non-player-related staffs, claiming they lack the professionalism needed for Milwaukee to not shoot 11-for-48 from three?

It (somehow) didn’t fall on the coaching staff, Rivers included, for failing to prevent Washington’s Jordan Poole from logging a career-high 13 assists, right? Giannis Antetokounmpo’s triple-double being followed by a combined 13 points on 6-for-26 shooting, from three of Milwaukee’s starters, wasn’t on Rivers? The head coach of a title-contending Bucks team, required to respond after suffering a first-round elimination during last season’s playoffs, can’t lock in at the final stretch of the regular season. That couldn’t me more concerning for Rivers, who’s already fighting a multi-decade-long stigma that’s proven itself to be true on several ocassions.

If Rivers feels Milwaukee’s front office didn’t target the necessary All-Star-caliber travel planner, that’s a conversation to take up to ownership.

However, when it comes to re-establishing a currently-very broken Bucks defense, that’s all on Rivers. When Milwaukee was on a 7-3 run in March, ranking second in offensive rating (117.6) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.40) entering a rival matchup with the Boston Celtics, Rivers didn’t pat the equipment managers on the back or credit the team’s towel boy.

It’s not hard to understand where ex-NBA veteran JJ Redick was coming from when the now-analyst spoke the hard truth about his former head coach.

Regardless of who Rivers finds to be a suitable deflection target, the Bucks won’t be nearly as lenitant as the 62-year-old likely hopes. The playoff track record speaks for itself and having blown three 3-1 leads and three 3-2 leads in the playoffs isn’t easy to break away from for Rivers. Adding an early exit with the Bucks in the coming weeks certainly won’t help either.