Doc Rivers didn’t pretend the plan was seamless. Asked how he learned Giannis Antetokounmpo wouldn’t go against the Golden State Warriors, the Milwaukee Bucks coach said.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know; they came in, told me he was out. I don’t even know what it is because it was so late; I was scrambling, trying to figure out what we were going to do.” A late scratch will do that to a coach, especially when the scratch is a two-time MVP.
Then the Bucks exhaled and played one of their most composed games of October. With Antetokounmpo sidelined by left knee soreness about an hour before tip, Milwaukee leaned on pace, threes, and a breakout from Ryan Rollins to beat Golden State, 120–110. Rollins, once a Warriors draft pick, torched his former team for a career-high 32 points on 13-of-21 shooting with eight assists and just one turnover. Cole Anthony poured in 16 off the bench, and Myles Turner stacked 17 points and seven rebounds as the Bucks closed with a 33–26 fourth quarter to put it away.
The Warriors got big nights from Stephen Curry (27 points), Jonathan Kuminga (24), and Jimmy Butler III (23 and 11 rebounds), but 22 turnovers and Milwaukee’s timely shot-making kept them chasing most of the night. The ESPN box score showed the Bucks hitting 19 of 46 from deep (41.3 percent) while limiting their own mistakes to 16 turnovers. That trade, extra possessions, and extra threes became the difference in crunch time.
Rivers’ “scrambling” line matched the pregame chaos. Antetokounmpo had been listed as probable through the day before the status flipped late, a reminder of how thin the margin can be on the second week of a long season. The absence snapped his ironman start, but Milwaukee’s rotation answered the moment: Kyle Kuzma soaked up frontcourt usage, AJ Green spaced the floor, and the guard room (Rollins, Anthony, Gary Harris) hounded passing lanes to disrupt Golden State’s flow.
If there’s a takeaway, it’s the Bucks’ adaptability under Rivers when the night goes sideways. They didn’t try to replace Antetokounmpo’s rim pressure with one player; they spread it around, hunted early-clock threes, and trusted Rollins to steer. For October, that’s a clean proof of concept, and a handy answer for the inevitable “What happens if Giannis sits?” question the next time Milwaukee faces a contender.
