The Milwaukee Bucks are on a cold streak. They have not won a game since their season-opening 124-109 victory over the undermanned Philadelphia 76ers on the road on Oct. 23.
That was followed by three straight losses for the Bucks, whose head coach, Doc Rivers, is now seemingly under fire amid his team’s repeated failures on the court. The losing continued for Milwaukee Thursday night when the Memphis Grizzlies subdued the Bucks to the tune of a 122-99 score.
Doc Rivers sounds off on Milwaukee Bucks’ transition defense after blowout loss to the Memphis Grizzlies
Following the loss, Rivers lamented one of the Bucks’ issues this season which showed up again in the Grizzlies game.
“Discipline period. And it’s on us to demand it more, point it out more, which we’re doing. And at some point, there has to be consequences for it. Just too many times they ran behind us today, over and over again,” Rivers said.
“I mean, bigs running behind us for lobs, that just can’t happen. It’s not like we don’t work on that every day. But we are not working on it well enough, because if we were, they wouldn’t be doing it. And again, I keep going back to me. There’s something they’re not hearing that I’m telling them and I gotta do a better job.”
Doc Rivers on transition defense:
"There's something they're not hearing that I'm telling them and I gotta do a better job" pic.twitter.com/RTRSOkAo6B
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) November 1, 2024
The Bucks allowed Memphis to score 20 fastbreak points. On the season, the Bucks are giving up 16.4 fastbreak points per game, which is 12th-most in the league thus far.
As Rivers noted, it is on him to try and change the Bucks’ approach when it comes to preventing opposing teams from leaking out and scoring easy buckets off uncontested shots in transition. It begins with getting control of the glass and avoiding turnovers
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