Rivers says Bucks don't need to make wholesale changes as they attempt to break out of slump

“We like our team,” Rivers said Wednesday after practice. “I really like this team. We’re not playing well. We’re not playing well for a lot of reasons. You don’t recreate the wheel. You just don’t. Teams that do that, then they fail. I’m just being honest. I’ve been around this long enough.”

Milwaukee won four of its first five games but has gone 7-15 since. The Bucks haven’t played since falling 127-82 at Brooklyn on Sunday.

“It was just an embarrassing game for us, at the end of the day,” guard Ryan Rollins said.

The time off since has given the Bucks an opportunity to practice on back-to-back days, a rarity during an NBA regular season. The Bucks say they’ve used that time to try to make sure they correct what went wrong in Brooklyn.

Milwaukee returns to action Thursday by hosting the Toronto Raptors.

“I don’t think there’s many losses in NBA history like the one we just had last game,” guard Kevin Porter Jr. said. “I think a loss like that wakes you up, and you don’t ever want to be on the end of that stick. Having those days (off) and having to sit on that loss definitely makes it worse. I think we all had an eye opener.”

But they apparently haven’t spent this time off pondering wholesale changes to the scheme or lineup.

“Yeah, we want to do things better,” Rivers said. “We want to tweak things. We like what we run. We like our defensive package overall. We’ve just got to do it better. We’ve got to take care of the ball. But we like the parts of this team, and that has not changed. This is not, ‘OK, guys, we’re five games under .500, let’s blow it all up.’ This is not where we’re at. We’re not even thinking in those terms.”

Milwaukee’s slow start has led to increased leaguewide speculation about Antetokounmpo’s future, though Rivers has disputed an ESPN report that the nine-time All-NBA selection was talking with Bucks officials about whether he’s best suited to stay in Milwaukee or get traded.

The Bucks have gone 2-8 when they don't have Antetokounmpo, who was out with a left adductor strain before injuring his calf.

The Bucks can take comfort in the fact that they have some impressive wins. They beat the Boston Celtics three nights before the debacle in Brooklyn. They defeated Golden State without Antetokounmpo early in the season. They beat the Detroit Pistons on Dec. 3 even after Antetokounmpo left with his calf injury just three minutes into the game.

But they also have fallen to Washington, Charlotte, Brooklyn and Sacramento, all of whom have lost more than twice as many games as they’ve won.

Myles Turner said this has become a “play-hard league” and noted the Bucks must consistently show the same effort and energy that was apparent in the NBA Cup games that took place the last few days. He believes the Bucks must recapture the joy they showed when they were playing well early in the season.

“When you start to lose, obviously it knocks your spirit a bit,” Turner said. “Again, it’s just really no time for excuses at this point. You have to go out there and perform.”

Rivers noted that it’s easy to simply say a team isn’t playing hard enough when it’s struggling, but he pointed out there are generally plenty of variables that are contributing to that. Rivers said a team that’s executing properly naturally looks as though it’s playing harder.

“It’s like the chicken and egg: Something has to go first,” Rivers said. “Something has to give you confidence to do it over and over again. Put it like this: I’m far more focused on execution than I am about feelings and head space and all that stuff. That’s just my opinion.”

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