Bucks open up 8-4. A little better than the 22-2 Cavs opening last time they played them.
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Bucks up 32-28 at the quarter. Dame with 12.
Connaughton still struggling on defense to stay in front on anyone. Otherwise there looked to be better defensive intensity overall.
Good half. Bucks up 61-51.
Giannis at 15-7-5.
Prunty is playing all the veterans. Payne getting minutes. Jackson none.
Bucks let a 21 point lead slip to 10 and then Dame hits a 3 at the buzzer fading out of bounds to get it back to 14 after three.
Bucks win. Announcers are still in the "duh, I wonder who the new coach will be??" mode. This is just dumb.
Good game. 126-116. Looked a lot more relaxed and organized.
Flat earthers thinks the Bucks Live crew is in denial.
Stat That Stood Out
"Tonight marked the first time since November 3rd where the Bucks allowed less than 55 points at halftime. If you remember, that was the game where Brook Lopez was placed back in his drop coverage. It’s ironic how this just happens to happen in the first game following Adrian Griffin’s dismissal. Defense will surely be a point of emphasis for Doc Rivers to improve, and the team took a step in the right direction tonight."
Giannis has been playing pissed off all season.
— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) January 25, 2024
Tonight he played like the fun-loving dude we're used to (who is also a psycho-competitive killer alien sent from the future to dominate basketball games)
Something to think about is I’m sure Giannis and the team got tired of all of the external noise concerning Griffin and his abilities as HC. Now, they may face a similar situation come playoff time with Doc Rivers, but at a minimum Rivers will give them more structure and discipline.
@Tschmack posted:Something to think about is I’m sure Giannis and the team got tired of all of the external noise concerning Griffin and his abilities as HC. Now, they may face a similar situation come playoff time with Doc Rivers, but at a minimum Rivers will give them more structure and discipline.
Doc Rivers has his faults, but part of the job when you coach a superteam is to absorb some of the media attention the team inevitably gets. It's often better to have the head coach driving the narrative. Phil Jackson was masterful at it. Spoelstra isn't very good at it, but Pat Riley protects him because he is a master as well and that helped with the LeBron Heat teams.
Adrian Griffin wasn't ready for that role yet. Budenholzer was Belichick like in saying almost nothing.
For better or worse, Rivers is as good with dealing with the media as almost anyone. He is not a superb strategist, but the main role of a head coach on a superteam is to minimize distractions and have the stars feel like they are being heard without caving to them all the time. Doc was a very good NBA player himself (made one all-star team) and that doesn't hurt either. I don't think he's a guy whose schemes are going to lose you games, although he may not be a guy whose schemes will elevate talent.
He handles players very well and almost never throws players under the bus - the one exception was Ben Simmons and if there was any player in NBA history who needed to be called out for a lack of effort and being a mental midget it was and is Ben Simmons. The only other guy that seems to hate him as a coach was James Harden. Not exactly an issue given that Harden may be the worst locker room cancer that has played in the NBA.
I'm sure someone in the national media will calculate this, but I would bet Rivers has coached more HOF NBA players than anyone in history.
Orlando - Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, Ben Wallace, Patrick Ewing (washed up at that point)
Boston - Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Gary Payton (old but still a starter), Rajon Rondo, Rasheed Wallace (HOF talent, but won't ever make it), Shaq (washed up)
LA Clippers - Chris Paul, Blake Griffin (5X All-NBA), Gilgeous-Alexander, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard,
Sixers - Embiid, Dwight Howard (8X All-NBA), Harden
Bucks - Giannis, Dame
He has coached more of the guys that play for the Bucks chief rivals than anyone. He knows what they like, what makes guys like Embiid tick, etc. If nothing else, he can manage personalities and egos at a level that most people don't end up hating him. That's not easy. Besides the stars he has coached guys like Pat Beverly, Stephen Jackson, etc. There is nothing he hasn't dealt with before.