Bucks Zone

Doc Rivers on Milwaukee's ugly loss to Miami: "Our defense was bad, our offense was way worse"

Doc Rivers blames Milwaukee’s lopsided loss to Miami on sloppy performance on both ends of the floor.
Matthew Dugandzic|
© Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

The Milwaukee Bucks played awfully on defense and were even worse on offense, resulting in an ugly 97-123 loss to the undermanned Miami Heat on Tuesday night.

Coach Doc Rivers rued the Bucks’ sloppy performance on both ends of the floor, admitting that they got totally outworked by a Heat team that was missing a few key players. Miami played without Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier, and Josh Richardson but were still able to totally dominate the contest.

“They were quicker on everything on both ends,” said Rivers, who dropped to 3-6 as a Bucks coach.

Miami toyed with Milwaukee’s defense

After playing solid defense in their last two games that saw them hold their opponents under 100 points, the Bucks’ defense sputtered against the Heat, who erupted for 40 points in the first quarter alone. Milwaukee’s offense was even more terrible, as it was held below 100 points just for the third time this season.

“You have these nights, you hate them, but it is what it is. I thought as bad as it looked defensively, I thought our offense was way worse tonight. I thought it started early, we were shooting 51 percent at halftime,” said Rivers.

Miami ended the first half with a sizable 67-52 point cushion. The lead ballooned to 22 after the third period and 31 at one point in the fourth.

Defense first before offense

Rivers lamented that the Bucks did a poor job moving the ball around and focused more on offense rather than on defense.

“I thought we were playing just awful offense, and I thought that that started our defense. The ball didn’t move a lot tonight, not the way it’s been moving,” said Rivers.

The veteran coach pointed out that the Bucks should focus more on defense, believing they can get going offensively if they do well defensively.

“I think right now with our team, we get our personality from the offensive end, and we don't want that. We want to get our personality from the defense from playing hard and doing defensive things,” Doc said.

After winning two straight games, the Bucks showed signs that they have started to figure things out, but with the bad loss to Miami, they are nowhere near reaching their peak form.

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Matthew Dugandzic
MATTHEW DUGANDZIC

Matthew finished his bachelor's degree in Economics (Management) at the University of Split and got his master's degree in the same field at the University of Zadar. Whether it is playing the game as an undersized 6'3'' power forward or simply watching it, Matthew can't get enough of it. After all, he has been an avid NBA fan since the 2000s. But don't get him wrong, as Matthew still loves the old-school NBA and is a true student of the game. From on-court moments to off-court stuff, whether it's about the stars of modern-day basketball or legends of the game, Matthew covers every category of the NBA world and basketball in general, as long as it makes for an engaging and exciting story.