Earlier this week, the Milwaukee Bucks sent shockwaves through the NBA world with the sudden firing of head coach Adrian Griffin. The first-year head coach guided the Bucks to the second seed in the Eastern Conference with an impressive 30-13 NBA record.
The reasons behind Griffin’s firing quickly became apparent, and one notable factor cited was Giannis reportedly losing faith in Griffin. In response to these developments, the Bucks acted promptly by replacing him with veteran head coach Doc Rivers.
Additionally, the defense seems to have been one of the deciding factors for a Griffin termination. Milwaukee has consistently boasted one of the NBA’s top defensive units while being coached by Mike Budenholzer.
A key component of their success has been Brook Lopez’s presence in protecting the rim, while the Bucks effectively shut down the paint. However, this season, the Bucks encountered a significant setback. The defensive performance took a nosedive, ranking as the league’s 8th worst.
While the departure of Jrue Holiday definitely played its role, the reason behind this unexpected decline was a decision made by Griffin to alter the defensive scheme. Instead of relying on Lopez’s interior presence, a more aggressive approach was adopted, requiring the center to defend more on the perimeter.
This change didn’t yield positive results, and the players had to persuade Griffin to revert back to the previous strategy.
Either way, the Griffin era in Milwaukee ended remarkably early and in veteran head coach Doc Rivers, the Bucks have already found a competent and more experienced replacement.
This however can now lead to an incredibly rare and pretty random record – NBA Redditor Odias_Chrysalis shed light on this. If Doc Rivers ends up debuting as Bucks coach against the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight, the Cavaliers would have faced the same team three times in the last 10 days, but each time with a completely different head coach.
When the teams played against each other on January 18 – a 135-95 blowout victory for the Cavs – Adrian Griffin was still head coach of the Bucks.
In the second game on Wednesday, interims head coach Joe Prunty led the Bucks to a 126-116 win, and as mentioned, if Rivers makes his debut tonight, he’ll serve as head coach in their third matchup.
That’s … gotta be a record (if it happens). pic.twitter.com/z08watmeVV
— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) January 25, 2024
