The Milwaukee Bucks are on the brink of another early playoff exit, but Doc Rivers isn’t panicking yet.
On Tuesday night, the Indiana Pacers expanded their series lead to 2-0 with a 123-115 victory over the Bucks. Milwaukee trailed the entire game and hasn’t led since three minutes into a lopsided Game 1 loss.
After the game, Rivers was asked about making adjustments for Friday night’s pivotal Game 3. The head coach conveyed optimism that the Bucks would rally.
“We’ll just see,” Rivers said. “We have time. We have 48 hours. I’m not going to tell you what I’m doing right now because I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. I’m very confident about this series. Very.”
Fans, on the other hand, don’t share that same confidence. Much of that stems from Rivers’ coaching performance.
“I’m sure the Pacers are very confident too,” NBC Sports’ Natalie Esquire said.
“Start to actually coach and make adjustments and maybe the fans would be confident as well,” a fan wrote.
“He must know about some defense we don’t know about,” a fan joked.
“Most overrated coach I’ve ever seen,” a fan said. “Any sport.”
“The way he’s coaching, we don’t stand a chance,” a fan claimed.
Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
A returning Damian Lillard wasn’t enough for Milwaukee to even the series at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The Pacers never looked back after jumping to an early advantage with 40 first-quarter points.
“We’ve gotten off to two poor starts, and we got to make an adjustment there, for sure,” Rivers told reporters.
Milwaukee hasn’t offered much opposition to an Indiana offense shooting 50.3 percent from the floor through two games. All five Pacers starters tallied at least 15 points on Tuesday night.
The Bucks are in danger of suffering their third straight opening-round playoff elimination. However, Rivers noted that the team overcame adversity when recovering from a 2-8 start to the regular season.
Following two home losses, the series shifts to Milwaukee for Game 3 on Friday at 8 p.m. ET.
“I look at it as a long series,” Rivers said. “We haven’t played a home game yet … We have to go home and take care of business, and then we’ll talk.”
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