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The Milwaukee Bucks fired Adrian Griffin and hired Doc Rivers to improve an underperforming team. So far the opposite has happened and the team hit a new low on Thursday.
Facing a shorthanded Memphis Grizzlies team in the second half of a back-to-back, the Bucks outworked and played better on their way to a brutal 113-110 loss. The loss drops them to 3-7 since Rivers replaced Griffin and gives them a 35-21 record heading into the All-Star break.
rivers he hit his team after the gameparticularly his discipline and effort:
“On the first play we play the fiftieth time in the corner. One guy pushes, we have to help, we roll a 3. In our set, two guys forget what we’re running for. Then we miss a shot and no one comes back. That’s how we start the third quarter. “That tells you everything you need to know about where our heads were at.”
“We had some guys here, we had some guys in Cabo.”
Obviously, those sound like the kind of mistakes that are made when a team is not well-coached, although it’s important to remember that Rivers has been on the job for just under three weeks and may still be trying to tweak what he was in. It does not work.
You can cut Rivers some slack this early in his tenure with the Bucks. But it’s probably not enough to excuse a loss to this Grizzlies team.
The Grizzlies are 20-36 and just played their ninth game in 15 days this month. They also didn’t have more than a full starting lineup of players, including Ja Morant (shoulder), Marcus Smart (finger), Jaren Jackson Jr. (quadriceps), Desmond Bane (ankle), Luke Kennard (knee) and Brandon Clarke (tendon). Achilles). ) not everyone played. The team also just traded big men Xavier Tillman and Steven Adams.
With all that talent, the Grizzlies’ starting lineup consisted of Santi Aldama, Ziaire Williams, Trey Jemison, Vince Williams Jr. and Jordan Goodwin. None of those players have been in the NBA longer than 2021 and only one (Williams) was selected in the first 25 picks of his drafts.
With all due respect to those players, that’s not a lineup that should beat a Bucks team with Giannis Antetkounmpo and Damian Lillard, no matter how hard Milwaukee is still working to figure things out. And yet, they couldn’t stop Williams (27 points on 9-of-13 shooting) and bench player GG Jackson II (27 points on 10-of-17 shooting).
There was also a question of execution, like the Bucks’ final play of the game:
The good news is that the Bucks now have eight days to rest and regroup. The bad news is that Rivers will have to spend some of that time coaching the Eastern Conference All-Star team, thanks to the Bucks’ success with Griffin.
It’s been a strange season for the Bucks, and they’ll have to resume it on Feb. 23 with a tough road test against the West-leading Minnesota Timberwolves.