{"id":352019,"date":"2025-12-17T22:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T22:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/352019\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T22:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T22:37:07","slug":"doc-rivers-confident-in-bucks-team-trying-to-break-out-of-slump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/352019\/","title":{"rendered":"Doc Rivers confident in Bucks team trying to break out of slump"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILWAUKEE \u2014 Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> coach Doc Rivers remains confident in his team and doesn\u2019t plan on making any major changes in the wake of a 45-point\u00a0loss to Brooklyn\u00a0that matched the Nets\u2019 most lopsided win in franchise history.<\/p>\n

The Bucks (11-16) haven\u2019t won two straight games since Oct. 28-30 as they struggle to deal with the absence of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>, who has been out for the last two weeks with a\u00a0right calf strain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like our team,\u201d Rivers said Wednesday after practice. \u201cI really like this team. We\u2019re not playing well. We\u2019re not playing well for a lot of reasons. You don\u2019t recreate the wheel. You just don\u2019t. Teams that do that, then they fail. I\u2019m just being honest. I\u2019ve been around this long enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milwaukee won four of its first five games but has gone 7-15 since. The Bucks haven\u2019t played since falling 127-82 at Brooklyn on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just an embarrassing game for us, at the end of the day,\u201d guard Ryan Rollins said.<\/p>\n

The time off since has given the Bucks an opportunity to practice on back-to-back days, a rarity during an NBA regular season. The Bucks say they\u2019ve used that time to try to make sure they correct what went wrong in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee returns to action Thursday by hosting the Toronto Raptors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s many losses in NBA history like the one we just had last game,\u201d guard Kevin Porter Jr. said. \u201cI think a loss like that wakes you up, and you don\u2019t ever want to be on the end of that stick. Having those days (off) and having to sit on that loss definitely makes it worse. I think we all had an eye opener.\u201d<\/p>\n

But they apparently haven\u2019t spent this time off pondering wholesale changes to the scheme or lineup.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we want to do things better,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cWe want to tweak things. We like what we run. We like our defensive package overall. We\u2019ve just got to do it better. We\u2019ve got to take care of the ball. But we like the parts of this team, and that has not changed. This is not, \u2018OK, guys, we\u2019re five games under .500, let\u2019s blow it all up.\u2019 This is not where we\u2019re at. We\u2019re not even thinking in those terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milwaukee\u2019s slow start has led to increased league-wide speculation about Antetokounmpo\u2019s future, though\u00a0Rivers has disputed\u00a0an ESPN report that the nine-time All-NBA selection was talking with Bucks officials about whether he\u2019s best suited to stay in Milwaukee or get traded.<\/p>\n

The Bucks have gone 2-8 when they don’t have Antetokounmpo, who was out with a left adductor strain before injuring his calf.<\/p>\n

The Bucks can take comfort in the fact that they have some impressive wins. They\u00a0beat the Boston Celtics\u00a0three nights before the debacle in Brooklyn. They\u00a0defeated Golden State\u00a0without Antetokounmpo early in the season. They\u00a0beat the Detroit Pistons\u00a0on Dec. 3 even after Antetokounmpo left with his\u00a0calf injury\u00a0just three minutes into the game.<\/p>\n

But they also have fallen to\u00a0Washington,\u00a0Charlotte, Brooklyn and\u00a0Sacramento,\u00a0all of whom have lost more than twice as many games as they\u2019ve won.<\/p>\n

Myles Turner said this has become a \u201cplay-hard league\u201d and noted the Bucks must consistently show the same effort and energy that was apparent in the NBA Cup games that took place the last few days. He believes the Bucks must recapture the joy they showed when they were playing well early in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start to lose, obviously it knocks your spirit a bit,\u201d Turner said. \u201cAgain, it\u2019s just really no time for excuses at this point. You have to go out there and perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivers noted that it\u2019s easy to simply say a team isn\u2019t playing hard enough when it\u2019s struggling, but he pointed out there are generally plenty of variables that are contributing to that. Rivers said a team that\u2019s executing properly naturally looks as though it\u2019s playing harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the chicken and egg: Something has to go first,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cSomething has to give you confidence to do it over and over again. Put it like this: I\u2019m far more focused on execution than I am about feelings and head space and all that stuff. That\u2019s just my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILWAUKEE \u2014 Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers remains confident in his team and doesn\u2019t plan on making any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-352019","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}