Bucks’ Rivers praises Giannis’ passing, Green’s shooting in loss at Utah

Bucks’ Rivers praises Giannis’ passing, Green’s shooting in loss at Utah

I know Dame finished the game but Duncan the third he was clearly limp into any up on how he’s no we think he’s okay but he was he was struggling all game with the ankle um I swear there were times I was just going to take him out uh even

In the first half even but his presence was helpful you know we didn’t have a lot of bodies um and at the end of the day I thought that’s what happened we we couldn’t script better shots every shot was wide open but everything was front rim uh probably should have gone to the

Post more they were going to double and make us throw out and still would have led to a jump shot so uh good job by them I thought will going big um we anticipated it but we thought we could make enough shots to keep their Bigs off

The floor we just couldn’t is that what you saw in the fourth scoring 13 points just a matter of running out of gas cuz there were a lot of turnovers there too early in that big run yeah yeah I thought it was all that give them credit

Defensively I thought they did a good job I thought when they went big early we rushed that’s why I called the timeout the guys just settle down we’re going to get every shot we want and we did we just couldn’t make any of and the more we missed the bigger they got uh

You mentioned with the short rotation just what’s the thought process beond there instead of bringing in maybe another young guy to get it yeah the only guy honestly I thought I could have played um Robin Mo um you know that was our game plan going in um we got a a

Stretch with him on the floor and we stretched the lead that was the one thing I thought we could have did more just to give guys some rest you know um but we can’t do it now uh Yan with the 13 assists what you think of his ability

He should have had 30 assists like really he he could have had a 20 assist night easy if you go back and look at the shots that he got guys I love the way he’s playing right now uh he’s still aggressive he’s taken you know we we’ve

Worked with the stuff we’ve done with him on a post did three times where he just took his time let him come he actually dragged him back you know the old Barkley thing which we talking to him about and then just pick guys apart but you got to make those shots

Otherwise they’re going to keep doing it um I know this is new for you early for you but for Malik to sort of I guess come to giannis’s defense that that happens here the teams have done just your impressions of I guess a teammate doing that for another one but also yeah

And he did it he did it a smart way you know um not a flagrant way if you know what I’m saying um you know I thought uh the whole thing would have been over if they just called the out of bounds when when seon stepped out of bounds on that

Play then none of that happens but they missed that which they said they did when they looked at the replay um you know I didn’t see anything other than I didn’t see I don’t think he hit Giannis on purpose uh but he did hit him I think

And I’m not even sure in this day you never know um and then I like you know I thought we got Malik upset as then six and kind of stood over him uh that’s where to me if you loow the whistle on that the rest doesn’t happen um but

Listen that the game was well afficiated tonight overall I just thought um it was more us than than them uh AJ I think hits his first three threes tonight and then he’s got those two in the fourth quarter with a young guy like him who’s in in the fourth quarter for the first

Time kind of this season what’s the message to him nothing be AJ you know be be yourself shoot the ball first one was a good one I thought he had the one where he took the two dribbles that was the one was early probably shouldn’t have taken it having said that I don’t

Mind him taking it I want him to be aggressive um you know it’s like coaching Jamal Crawford Jamal we’re going to put you in we want you to be a great offensive player right and so you got to give them the freedom to be that otherwise you’re choking what they do so

Uh I was fine with the way he played I and I thought he showed a lot of toughness you know they tried to Target him and he he held his own defensively AJ’s showing me that he’s a tough kid like he’s not just going to to to wit

And I like that uh the other day you mentioned that Jay is a really good talker for you guys with unit over these last couple games obviously he’s played a lot more minutes just what have you liked from him he was great you know and again um we are playing hard now defensively

And you can see that visually it also is taken stuff out you know you can see the fatigue and so you know even after the game and um we may have to lengthen add one more guy you know to the rotation just to if we want them to play hard we

Want them to stay fresh cuz they’re not used to doing it yet and our goal is to build up that type of intensity with a short rotation for 48 minutes of hard B cuz that’s what the playoffs are um but no one’s at that point yet and we’re not

Either you’re telling your team to force them into uncomfortable shots yeah what does that look like for you and does that change depending on on your opponent it does a little bit but it was pretty obvious tonight they have bigs who stand behind the three and what we

Wanted them to do is dribble the ball just put the ball on the floor um I think they got three in a row when markting caught shot um and you know I think Pat was the one he on one of them he closed out short well if you close

Out short to a seven-footer they I don’t know if they even see you down there you know you got to get through their body and make them put it on the floor uh you can tell where you to was stopping we want you to go through guys and make

Them uncomfortable you The Bigs don’t want to dribble the ball they want to shoot the ball and I thought we did that overall for the most part of the night and then we kind of let [Applause] up

Hear from #Bucks coach Doc Rivers after Milwaukee’s loss at Utah.