Doc Rivers may have given one of the most ridiculous justifications for losing 3-1 in a playoff series. The Milwaukee Bucks head coach, who has blown three 3-1 leads in his coaching career, claimed that he earns a bad reputation from those losses, and doesn’t get the credit he or his teams deserve. Rivers defended the losses, claiming that his teams always fight to win games and that he has never been swept in his career.
“No one tells a real story. And I’m fine with that. It’s unfair in some ways. I don’t get enough credit for getting the three wins. I get credit for losing. I always say, ‘What if we had lost to Houston in six?’”
“No one cares. One of the things that I’m proud of is we’ve never been swept. All the coaches have been swept in the playoffs. My teams achieve. A lot of them overachieve and I’m very proud of that.”
This is a truly bizarre school of thought from Rivers. Many of the teams that Rivers coached that would go on to blow 3-1 leads in the playoffs were favored to win their respective series. Not just because of the leads, but because of the overall level of talent on the teams. The fact that he was a coach for teams that couldn’t take advantage of their advantageous position negatively affects his legacy.
Rivers’ first blown 3-1 lead came in 2003 in the first round of the playoffs, as his Orlando Magic side went up 3-1 against the Detroit Pistons, but would go on to lose the series in a humiliating fashion.
His second 3-1 lead came in the aforementioned 2015 series against the Houston Rockets. Rivers was the coach of the L.A. Clippers. The ‘Lob City Clippers’ were dominating the Rockets. But Harden and the Rockets would find a way to get the win and move on to the next round.
The next embarrassment would come in the Bubble, as the Clippers, who were considered one of the favorites to win the NBA championship that year, lost to the Denver Nuggets in one of the worst series defeats in NBA history. Rivers was rightly lambasted for his efforts, even losing his job with the Clippers over this matter.
For a coach as highly regarded as Rivers, having three different blown 3-1 leads is a stain on his legacy. And while he might argue that getting swept in the playoffs is a far worse fate, I’d argue against that. Getting swept rarely comes as a surprise, because it proves that there is a gulf in class between the two sides, and one of them never got going.
On the other hand, blowing a 3-1 lead means that you had the players, resources, and wherewithal to see out the win. But you either lost focus, lost energy, or lost discipline and allowed the opposition team to snatch victory from your jaws of defeat.
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