The Milwaukee Bucks just dropped another winnable game to Toronto, 111-105, despite three players scoring over 20 points, even with Giannis Antetokounmpo missing. And at this point, there is no questioning why these losses to ostensibly less talented teams keep piling up.
Myles Turner captured the fundamental problem quite candidly when talking to HoopsHype recently, saying: "There are nights when we show up, and we can beat anybody, and there are nights when we show up, and we can lose to anybody."
And more than anything else, that points to faulty, inconsistent coaching.
Doc Rivers is the problem the Bucks refuse to solve
Against Toronto, Myles Turner, Kevin Porter Jr., and Bobby Portis all scored over 20 points. Milwaukee got elite offensive production from three rotation players, and still lost because Rivers couldn't figure out how to maximize those performances within a functional system.
The inconsistency and lack of creativity with lineups is a coaching problem, not a talent problem. When your team shows up differently every night with the same roster, that means preparation and game-planning are failing.
In his post-game press conference, Doc Rivers chose to publicly blame Kevin Porter Jr.'s seven turnovers instead of taking any accountability for his own failures.
"These guys are trying. They want to win, but the problem is, by doing that, they did too much. I thought Scoot tried to do too much and that's what created some of the turnovers. I thought he got frustrated early with the officiating and that took him out for a little bit as well. When we have guys out, we have no margins of error. And so right now, we're not playing within them," he said.
It's become something of a pattern in the Doc Rivers era: deflect criticism onto players while his coaching limitations get a free pass from an ownership group that handpicked him against the front office's better judgment. The Bucks are enabling this cycle at their own expense, and it's costing them games they desperately need.
Interestingly, Rivers rolled out an eight-man rotation in a regular season game when the team was missing its superstar and in need of every available body to compete. Rivers has preached needing total buy-in from his players, yet hardly gives them the chances they need to develop.
The silver lining is perhaps the fact that he was in playoff mode and refusing to trust his bench, even when circumstances demanded it, could indicate that there is some pressure from the front office to start winning with urgency again.
Parting with Doc Rivers is looking more and more like the biggest thing they need to do right now. Not tweaking rotations, not making trades, not waiting to see if things improve. Only firing him and starting fresh before this season becomes completely unsalvageable.
The Bucks know they need to start winning games to keep Giannis believing in this team. Every loss pushes him closer to demanding out, every disappointing performance erodes whatever faith remains. Milwaukee doesn't have time to waste hoping Rivers figures it out.
Under Rivers, Milwaukee's chances of winning will always have a ceiling. He's proven over multiple franchises that he can't adjust, can't maximize talent, and can't take responsibility when things go wrong. That pattern isn't changing in Milwaukee.
How many more games does Milwaukee need to lose before ownership admits the obvious? Rivers is the problem, and keeping him around is organizational malpractice when Giannis' future hangs in the balance.
Every game Rivers coaches is another game wasted from Giannis' prime and another step toward inevitable first-round playoff humiliation. Milwaukee knows this. They just won't admit it yet.