DENVER — Though they managed to maintain it shut on the street towards the defending champions, the Milwaukee Bucks got here up quick in Doc Rivers’ teaching debut with the crew, falling to the Nuggets 113-107 on Monday evening.

Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 29 factors, 12 rebounds and 4 assists and Brook Lopez added 19 factors, hitting 5 of his 9 3-point makes an attempt. Damian Lillard (18 factors, 5 assists) and Khris Middleton (14 factors, eight rebounds) had been additionally double-digit scorers for the Bucks, however it wasn’t sufficient because the Bucks struggled offensively towards the Nuggets.

“Our half-court defense was excellent,” Rivers stated. “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.”

Monday’s loss was a drastic departure from the best way the Bucks had performed beneath Adrian Griffin of their first 43 video games earlier than the Bucks dismissed the first-time head coach final week. Under Griffin, the crew’s offense was spectacular (second in offensive ranking) whereas the protection struggled, falling to twenty second in defensive ranking by the point Griffin was fired.

For Rivers, the crew’s defensive efficiency towards a top-10 offense despatched a transparent message to the brand new coach.

“I told our guys anyone who told you you couldn’t play defense lied,” Rivers stated. “You proved that tonight. You competed tonight.”

In the opinion of the Bucks’ two-time MVP, that needs to be the usual on this new period of Bucks basketball.

“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 stated. “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.”

It wasn’t good for the Bucks defensively. Nikola Jokić put collectively a triple-double with 25 factors, 16 rebounds and 12 assists, and his operating mate Jamal Murray added 35 factors and 5 assists, however the Bucks felt as if they made Jokić and the Nuggets work arduous offensively. To get his 25 factors, Jokić wanted 25 pictures, and whereas Murray had an important evening, the Bucks managed to restrict the remainder of the roster.

On the opposite finish of the ground, issues regarded extra like a piece in progress. Before the sport, Rivers talked about how he hoped to see the Bucks’ two-man combo of Antetokounmpo and Lillard enhance beneath his management and steering.

“It’s been effective, but it should be dominant, in my opinion,” Rivers stated of the two-man recreation 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.”

While the Bucks have been wonderful closing out video games all season, posting the NBA’s fourth-best web ranking in clutch conditions, it was a wrestle for them Monday as they went scoreless for 2 minutes at first of clutch time. After Lopez nailed a deep 3 to lower the Nuggets’ lead to one, 98-97, the Bucks dedicated turnovers on consecutive possessions after which missed a 3-pointer, which allowed the Nuggets to put collectively an 8-0 run. The Bucks by no means recovered.

After the sport, Rivers defined how tough it was for him to get his gamers in the precise locations offensively and discover the precise synergy between their key gamers.

“I’m happy with where we’re going,” Rivers stated. “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.”

Throughout this course of, Rivers has been blunt in assessing the scenario and telling his new crew that it’s going to be tough to be part of a crew in the course of a season and set up new choices on each ends of the ground.

Before the sport, Rivers admitted that whereas his teaching employees can be a giant a part of the method in catching up to the Bucks’ already established terminology, the gamers also can assist and inform him of their calls and their motion as they work by constructing a brand new id on the fly.

“You don’t normally see that, but we’re a veteran team, thankfully, that can help him along the way with stuff that we run and stuff that we like to run at certain times during the game,” Middleton stated. “And he’ll adjust to that and he’ll give us some new stuff and some other stuff to think about and to run, so I’m excited about the process, really.”

That course of will want to proceed alongside at a quick tempo because the Bucks are again in motion Wednesday towards the Portland Trail Blazers because the crew’s five-game, 10-day journey continues within the Pacific Northwest for Lillard’s first recreation again in Portland after the commerce that despatched him to Milwaukee in October.

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(Photo: Bart Young / NBAE by way of Getty Images)