{"id":685276,"date":"2026-03-29T02:55:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/685276\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T02:55:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T02:55:38","slug":"doc-rivers-bemoans-injuries-after-bucks-are-eliminated-from-nba-playoff-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/685276\/","title":{"rendered":"Doc Rivers bemoans injuries after Bucks are eliminated from NBA playoff race"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> have officially been eliminated from NBA playoff contention for the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n

The franchise had not missed the playoffs since the 2015-16 season but will now instead land in the NBA draft lottery.<\/p>\n

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Center Myles Turner and the Bucks fell to 29-44 on the season after losing 127-95 to Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. Milwaukee is 11th in the Eastern Conference standings as of Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been disappointing, obviously,\u201d Bucks coach Doc Rivers told reporters. \u201cSince I’ve been here, I haven’t had a healthy stretch and it’s been your key guys. It’s been (Giannis Antetokounmpo). It’s been (former Bucks guard Damian Lillard). And you hope you can play through that, but we just haven’t had the ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bucks waived Lillard before the season, and the team has been playing chunks of this season without Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n

1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Washington Wizards’ Cam Whitmore dunks the ball against the Charlotte Hornets at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

3 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Brooklyn Nets’ Michael Porter Jr. dunks in front of the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama at Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

4 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 25: The Denver Nuggets’ Christian Braun dunks the ball against the Phoenix Suns’ Grayson Allen at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. dunks against the Miami Heat at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

6 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo dunks over the Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

7 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The New York Knicks’ OG Anunoby goes up for a reverse dunk against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

8 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The Utah Jazz’s Lauri Markkanen dunks against the Los Angeles Clippers at Delta Center.<\/p>\n

Antetokounmpo has not played since March 15, and the team has won just one of its last six games in the absence of its star player.<\/p>\n

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Rivers added that he believes his team is playing at a deficit with “only one quote-unquote star” while “every other team has two and three.”<\/p>\n

The team made additions to the roster, acquiring Turner in the offseason, in an attempt to produce a winner, but the team continued to be plagued by injuries this season.<\/p>\n

“We needed health,” Rivers said. “We were thin. We knew that before the season started, and it just didn’t go our way. All the talk and all that stuff probably didn’t help, either.”<\/p>\n

\"Milwaukee<\/p>\n

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers looks on during the second quarter against the San Antonio Spurs at Fiserv Forum.<\/p>\n

“The talk” was presumably alluding to Antetokounmpo’s future with the franchise. The team officially out of the playoff picture will only fuel more speculation about Antetokounmpo\u2019s future<\/a> with the team.<\/p>\n

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Bucks co-owner and governor Wes Edens told ESPN that the Bucks will likely pursue one of just two outcomes regarding Antetokounmpo this offseason: either the team will sign the star to another extension, or he will be traded. Antetokounmpo is eligible for a contract extension on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

Rivers has tried to see the silver linings this season, starting with some of the younger players on the roster, including Ryan Rollins, Pete Nance and Ousmane Dieng.<\/p>\n

Rivers also credited Bobby Portis for his effort in a leadership role this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s been a pro throughout this year,\u201d Rivers said. \u201cWe had a great talk today about it before the game. I’m just so proud of him as a leader. He tries to do the right stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Doc Rivers bemoans injuries after Bucks eliminated from NBA playoffs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Milwaukee Bucks have officially been eliminated from NBA playoff contention for the 2025-26 season. The franchise had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,507,125,2660,123,121,367,6,11,6609,21490,2763,474,361,693],"class_list":["post-685276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-playoffs","tag-basketball","tag-bobby-portis","tag-damian-lillard","tag-doc-rivers","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-myles-turner","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-ousmane-dieng","tag-pete-nance","tag-ryan-rollins","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-the-bucks","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116310216762531896","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}