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The Milwaukee Bucks have been arguably the most disappointing team of the 2024-25 NBA season so far. They’ve gotten off to a 4-9 start and have shown no signs of turning things around. Following their most recent loss on Saturday to the Charlotte Hornets, Bucks head coach Doc Rivers did not hold back on blaming the refs for the outcome.
“I thought the final play was the ref blowing the call. This is back to back games now where on the final play, there’s been an incorrect call made,” Rivers said. “LaMelo Ball fell. He just fell down. Nobody was near him, slipped on his own. We come up with the ball, the game is over. Back to back games now, we’ve had a call made against us that was incorrect.”
The other refs incident that Doc Rivers is referring to was the Bucks’ last game against the Detroit Pistons. Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo seemingly blocked Pistons rookie Ron Holland at the rim but a foul was called. Holland went on to miss both free-throw in a tie game and it went to overtime where the Bucks ultimately prevailed.
Although they won that game, the Bucks took shots at the refs on social media. In this game, Ball made both free throw to seal the Hornets’ win against the Bucks.
“It was clearly not a foul. When you watch the video the ref that called the foul was blocked out by one of our players,” Rivers continued. “You can’t guess at the end of the game, both teams have played too hard.”
Doc Rivers, Bucks slugging through disappointing season
When the Bucks acquired Damian Lillard in a trade involving the Portland Trail Blazers ahead of the 2023-24 season, the prevailing thought was that they would regain their status as a championship team.
They got off to a solid start that year, but surprisingly fired head coach Adrian Griffin and replaced him with Rivers. The Bucks ended up finishing with the third seed in the Eastern Conference, but were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Indiana Pacers amid injuries to Antetokounmpo and Lillard.
This season, the Bucks have not had Khris Middleton in the lineup due to injury, and they’ve started out in disappointing fashion. They don’t resemble a championship contending team at all. They’re currently 12th in the East standings at 4-9.
There’s obviously a lot of season remaining to right the ship, and Middleton’s eventual return will help.
