If you are Doc Rivers, this season was not the right start you had expected. Coaching a Bucks team with stars such as Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard is no easy task.
This season could have been the first time Rivers could have molded the Bucks into a championship-contention team. Alas, the Bucks have now lost three games in a row, the most recent being against defending champions Boston Celtics.
Despite an evenly matched game through much of 48 minutes, the Bucks still fell short of clinching a victory against Jayson Tatum and Co. After leading the score by one point until two minutes left of the third quarter; the Celtics brought in their arsenal of three-pointers shooters such as Derrick White to cut the lead short and bounce back with a five-point lead.
Despite the Bucks’ attempts to revive their scoring, such efforts went all in vain, thanks to the Celtics’ clinical defensive strategies. Milwaukee struggled to convert shots while Boston grabbed rebounds to extend their lead.
One of the game’s highlight moments was a triple from Celtics’ Payton Pritchard. In the game’s final five seconds, Jayson Tatum passed the ball to Pritchard, who dribbled past two Bucks defenders to nail a shot from beyond the arc. With that, the Celtics had extended an eight-point lead against the Bucks.
The Celtics were playing this game in their home ground, TD Garden, which added to the motivation and morale of the players. At one point, it seemed impossible for the Bucks to cut the deficit, and rightly so. Even Doc Rivers seemed exasperated, especially after Pritchard’s shot, and was seen hanging his head when the cameras cut to him standing on the sideline.
What did Doc Rivers say about Payton Pritchard?
In a post-game conference, as per Justin Turpin, Rivers said, “Payton Pritchard happened…. This morning, I literally circled his name. It’s like, this guy comes in, and he’s a game changer… He got their three-ball going… I thought that changed the game.“
At the time when Pritchard took the shot to sink the three, Rivers knew the tide had changed in favor of the Cs. The veteran head coach had mentioned how the 6’1″ guard had also changed the course of the game against the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals.
In a way, Pritchard was the clutch player that Boston needed during the crunch minutes of a game. On the other hand, Rivers was pleased with the way his team played last night. However, there is no doubt that if the Bucks had to win the game against the Celtics, they would have needed to re-evaluate their defensive strategies, working around stopping scorers such as Pritchard.
