The Milwaukee Bucks lost 115-110 to the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena on Friday night and head coach Doc Rivers was fuming after the game. In his postgame press conference, Rivers called out his players for being too casual in the third quarter, which led to them blowing a 21-point lead.
“I thought we completely – I’m trying to find the right word – I don’t wanna say tricked off the game,” Rivers said. “Our casualness that third quarter was ridiculous and then we couldn’t turn it back on. That’s happened three or four times this year. So, that’s what I saw.
“We played with zero pace in the first quarter and then we start moving the ball, playing well,” Rivers continued. “We played beautiful basketball in the second quarter, the ball was hooping, swinging. Third quarter, no pace, walked the ball up the floor. Had five turnovers in that quarter, took horrendous shots, no passing.
“I bet I’ve said this probably twice this year, it would have been a joke to basketball if we won the game tonight,” Rivers added. “We didn’t deserve it, we didn’t deserve to win. We are a better team than what we showed but it’s just another example and it’s on me, I gotta get them to see it. It’s on me. I gotta get them to see that you can’t be casual in an NBA game and think you’re gonna win the game.”
The Bucks were down 36-26 at the end of the first quarter but then seemingly seized complete control of the contest. They won the second quarter 47-19 to take a commanding 73-55 lead at halftime.
Bobby Portis hit a three at the start of the third quarter to give the Bucks their biggest lead of the night, but things started going wrong not too long after. The Hawks went on a 16-2 run in the middle of the quarter to get back in the game. They ended up winning that third quarter 37-17 to lead 92-90 entering the fourth.
The Hawks then withstood a lot of pressure from the Bucks in the final period to drop the visitors to 27-23 on the season. The Bucks have now lost four of their last five road games and are 10-15 outside of Milwaukee this season.
The one excuse you could give the Bucks for this defeat was Giannis Antetokounmpo being out with a calf issue. Still, you’d expect them to win once they went up by 21, especially with a veteran like Damian Lillard being out there.
Lillard had 23 points (7-19 FG), nine rebounds, and 10 assists against the Hawks. That’s a good stat line, but he is one of those who can be accused of being a bit too casual. Lillard should have ensured the Bucks stepped on the Hawks’ throats and killed the game but failed to do so and you can understand Rivers being frustrated by that.
The Bucks will be in action next against the Philadelphia 76ers at Fiserv Forum on Sunday at 2 PM ET. Both teams enter that contest on the back of disappointing losses and it will be interesting to see which one responds better.
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