After a strong stretch of games immediately following the NBA All-Star break, the Milwaukee Bucks find themselves stuck in the mud after dropping five of their last seven contests.
Most recently, the Bucks suffered a grueling loss to the Golden State Warriors, who were without their top dog in Stephen Curry. Despite Curry serving as a spectator, the Bucks couldn't assert themselves and fell apart down the stretch. After this game, it's clear that something needed to change, and there apparently was a meeting to address this.
Doc Rivers called a meeting after Milwaukee Bucks' latest ugly loss
Per NBA insider Chris Haynes, Doc Rivers called Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard in for a personal meeting to discuss the state of the team. Rivers reportedly allowed both players to deliver their input on what they thought could help the team right now. Haynes, who has close ties to Lillard, called it a "constructive" session.
Something like this needed to happen. The Milwaukee Bucks just simply haven't looked like the team that came out of the All-Star break hot. Lately, for whatever reason, they've looked uncomfortable on both sides of the ball, but the offense, in particular, has been ugly. Milwaukee has the highest-scoring duo in the NBA, but things have been far from smooth sailing lately, and this session may have been a good way to explore why.
Now, the question at hand is what the team will do differently moving forward. Will Rivers opt to make a lineup change? Will he switch up the rotation? Call for more pick-and-rolls with the two stars? Allow Giannis to play more at the five spot to give the team more versatility defensively? It'll be interesting to see what changes get made after this meeting, but it's clear that some changes need to happen.
With just 14 regular season games left on the schedule, there isn't much time before things get real, but the Milwaukee Bucks have to try something at this point. The rest of March looks difficult for the Bucks, so they will face plenty of strong challengers. Depending on what changes Rivers makes, this stretch could make or break the Milwaukee Bucks before the NBA Playoffs.
What makes this issue more pressing is that the Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons are the four, five and sixth seeds in the Eastern Conference, and they all have 38 wins. If they want to secure homecourt advantage in the first round, they need to get it together fast.
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