Doc Rivers Said The Bucks Had ‘Some Guys In Cabo’ After Losing To The Grizzlies

The Milwaukee Bucks have not played well since Doc Rivers arrived on the scene, with their final game before the All-Star break being a particularly dismal performance, losing to the extremely shorthanded Grizzlies in Memphis.

With that loss, the Bucks fell to 3-7 with Rivers as head coach, as for every stride made defensively, the offense has tapered off in its place. There are always some growing pains with a coaching change, but for a team that was 32-14 when Rivers stepped in out of the ESPN booth, going 3-7 to fall well behind pace of the Celtics in the East was not supposed to happen. Thursday night’s loss was particularly jarring given their opponent, as the shorthanded Grizzlies are certainly frisky, but also outmanned by Milwaukee’s talent level.

However, the way to negate that is by outworking the other team and executing better, and that was certainly what Memphis did to Milwaukee. After the game, a less-than-thrilled Rivers called out his team, noting while some guys came to play, the Bucks had “some guys in Cabo,” a nod to the upcoming week vacation players are going to get.

Rivers may very well be right that the Bucks weren’t fully locked in for a game against the banged up Grizzlies right before the All-Star break, but it’s also part of his job to make sure they are. Rivers has never been shy about calling out his players publicly in past head coaching gigs, but it’s fair to wonder if he has the standing in the locker room right now for it to have the intended effect. A week off will require the Bucks to figure some things out — with Rivers coaching the All-Star Game with a losing record as head coach this season — and we’ll see if Rivers can get the buy-in required for them to turn things around this year. If not, Shaq’s postgame analysis could come true that they’ll be bounced in another first round series.