Doc Rivers reacts to his Bucks debut: 'Happy with where we're going' / News - Basketnews.com

Doc Rivers reacted to his debut as the Milwaukee Bucks head coach, claiming he liked what he saw while adding that the Giannis Antetokounmpo-Damian Lillard should become dominant.

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Doc Rivers marked his debut as the Milwaukee Bucks head coach with a loss to the Denver Nuggets.

Player of the Game EFF 38 Nikola Jokic Points 25 Accuracy 10-25 Rebounds 16 Assists 12

Nevertheless, the 62-year-old was happy with what he saw.

"Our half-court defense was excellent," Rivers said after the game, as reported by Eric Nehm from The Athletic. "We fought tonight. I thought tonight was an offensive loss. I didn't think we were crisp offensively. We had stretches where the ball was humming and hopping, and then we had stretches where it didn't. And those stretches we have to clean up. But overall, I was very happy."

The new Bucks head coach was also impressed with his team's defensive effort.

"I told our guys anyone who told you you couldn't play defense lied," Rivers said. "You proved that tonight. You competed tonight."

Meanwhile, the Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo believes the accountability on defense should be the new standard.

"There's going to be times that you lose games, but in order for you to win at a high level, there's got to be a standard," Antetokounmpo said. "And today, I think we set the standard as a team. We can definitely defend, and moving forward, there's no excuse for us not to defend."

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Rivers also talked about the duo of Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. He believes that the Bucks superstars should dominate their opponents.

"It's been effective, but it should be dominant, in my opinion," Rivers said of the two-man game between Antetokounmpo and Lillard. "We did a lot of two-man work today. You won't probably see a lot of it tonight, but it was clear; I think the whole team pretty much got what we did after 20 minutes of doing the same thing."

"It's important for us. And then the three-man game with Khris. Throw Khris in there, too. That's important, as well," Rivers added.

After the game, Rivers explained how difficult it was for him to get his players in the right places offensively and find the right synergy between their key players.

"I'm happy with where we're going," Rivers said. "I just know for a while it's going to be tough, especially offensive calls. I had to turn to Joe (Prunty) and DJ (Bakker) a lot because me and (Dave Joerger), we'd be like, 'What's that play where Bobby …?' It's going to take a minute.

"I mean, I've watched our offense 50 times over the last two days, yet it's just going to take time to have the right rhythm to make the right calls. We scored a lot out of ATOs [after timeout plays]. That was my stuff, but I'd rather score off of what we run because they know the second and third options of those."

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