On Tuesday night, the Milwaukee Bucks were expected to take care of business against the moribund Washington Wizards. Sure, the Bucks may have been without Damian Lillard, but the Wizards have been plain bad this season, so the expectation was that Giannis Antetokounmpo and company were not going to have any problems taking home a win. The problem is that it's a toss-up as to which version of the Bucks will be appearing on the road, and tonight, fans got the bad version, with Milwaukee tripping up on a banana peel in the nation's capital, 117-113.
The talent the Bucks had on the active roster in this loss to the Wizards should have been more than enough to get a victory. However, head coach Doc Rivers has noticed that the Bucks have this glaring weakness on the road that they're going to have to rectify moving forward if they're serious about making a deep playoff run.
“I think [we've lacked] focus. You know, it's funny. I've actually been sitting back and watching everything. Not just our players, but our travel crew, everything, and I've made a lot of notes. But we don't bring the necessary professionalism, seriousness on the road. And that's something that we can fix. And that's something we're going to have to fix,” Rivers said in his postgame presser following the Bucks' loss to the Wizards, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
It's certainly a bit characteristic of Doc Rivers to call out other members of the organization he works for. Calling out the travel crew is a bit unnecessary, but is about what you'd expect from Rivers. Nonetheless, the Bucks have to fix their issues away from home, especially when it's not likely for them to have homecourt advantage past the second round of the playoffs.
No improvement under Doc Rivers?
It has been a tumultuous season for the Bucks, with the appointment of Doc Rivers following the midseason firing of Adrian Griffin not righting the ship at all for a franchise that's looking to compete for a championship. Rivers has gone 15-14 in his stint as the Bucks' head coach, which is poor compared to how they performed under Griffin (30-13).
For all of the talk about how the Bucks have improved on the defensive end under Rivers, their performance as a team hasn't gotten much better. Their offensive output has declined; they ranked second under Griffin and interim Joe Prunty, and they have fallen to 17th under their new head coach.
Nonetheless, Rivers, despite acknowledging how bad it was for the Bucks to lose to the Wizards, of all teams, he doesn't want to take too much time in licking his wounds.
“It's a disappointing loss. Not much more to say about it,” Rivers said, via Bally Sports Wisconsin. “I just think they outplayed us. We took two days off for a reason, to get our legs. I felt like we were really sloppy, maybe that had something to do with it.”
"It's a disappointing loss. Not much more to say about it." #Bucks head coach Doc Rivers after the 117-113 loss to the Wizards. #FearTheDeer | #NBA pic.twitter.com/hHbsTLBT8r
— Bally Sports Wisconsin (@BallySportWI) April 3, 2024
Bucks' worst loss of the season?
The Bucks' 117-113 defeat to the Wizards on Tuesday might be their most embarrassing defeat of the 2023-24 season. Washington has basically given up on the 2023-24 season, with Kyle Kuzma sitting out on Tuesday night, and yet they had carte blanche against the allegedly-improved Bucks defense, scoring 70 points in the paint.
This should have been an easy win for a team with championship aspirations, so this defeat is downright unacceptable.
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