Doc Rivers Defends Blowing Multiple 3-1 Series Leads By Suggesting He Actually Deserves More Credit For Winning 3 Of The Games

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The Doc Rivers Era in Milwaukee certainly has certainly been….interesting. You'll remember that the team fired Adrian Griffin despite the Bucks being 31-13 at the time to hire Rivers instead, and since that moment, he's gone 107-57 (.533) with an early playoff exit to show for it. This season, despite Giannis having an MVP caliber season and Dame playing well, the Bucks are underachieving. After another loss last night, they're now 4-6 over their last 10 and sit in the 5th seed at 40-31. Given how well the Pacers are playing (W5) there's bo guarantee that the Bucks even finish the season with homecourt, which would make a playoff path of 4 straight road series pretty damn tough.

Speaking of the playoffs, with the postseason fastly approaching and Doc Rviers being involved, there's a strong chance you'll hear a stat or comment about how many 3-1 leads Doc has blown as a head coach. The answer, of course, is three separate 3-1 series leads. I don't care who you are, those are series you need to win. Doc brought this topic up recently,y and I have to admit, this is some ALL TIME spinzone

“No one tells a real story. And I’m fine with that. It’s unfair in some ways. I don’t get enough credit for getting the three wins. I get credit for losing. I always say, ‘What if we had lost to Houston in six?’ No one cares. One of the things that I’m proud of is we’ve never been swept. All the coaches have been swept in the playoffs. My teams achieve. A lot of them overachieve and I’m very proud of that.”

I have to be honest, I thought this was NBACentel when I first read that quote. There's a lot to digest here, so let's just dive right in.

Technically, Doc is right to some degree. All this hooplah about blowing 3-1 leads, well, in order to have a 3-1 lead, you do technically need to win 3 of those games. Doc has a point there. Winning 3 games in a series is tough, and that should be part of the story when talking about this issue. 

But this is what Doc is missing here. The reason this whole 3-1 thing is a big deal is because he's already won 3. You don't get credit for losing a series, no matter how many games it took. Does Doc want credit for the first 3 wins of the 2010 Finals despite losing in 7 games? Does Joe Mazzulla want credit for losing Game 7 in 2023 despite winning 3 in a row to tie the series?

Of course not! Because nobody gives a shit how many games you win in a series unless you with the 4th game. That's the whole point! Yes, if Doc's teams had lost in 6 games as opposed to blowing a 3-1 lead, nobody would really care. That is correct, because teams lose in 6 games all the time! 

You know what they don't do? Blow multiple 3-1 leads. 

Considering teams in NBA histoy with a 3-1 lead are 275-13 (95.5%) all time, it doesn't take a mathematician to understand why a coach owning 23% of all of those collapses would maybe have that narrative follow him around. He's also only 113-108 (.511) in the playoffs, so I also don't know how much "overachieving" his teams are doing. He's only been to 2 Finals and 3 Conference Finals as a head coach, and they all came in Boston. That shit ended in 2012……it's 2025.

Look, I'll always have love for Doc for what he did for my life back in 2008. I don't really want him coaching my favorite team, but I'll always respect him for that run. But this is also classic Doc. Deflecting and not really taking responsibility. Always finding an excuse. This time, it's that nobody gives him credit for winning the games that took place before his historic collapses. Now that I think about it, I kind of love it? It's so insane that you have no choice but to expect it.

Given the age of Dame and the pressure there is on MIL to win big now that this is Year 2 of their roster experiment, I can't wait to see how it shakes out. As of today, MIL's path to a Finals would include IND/CLE and then BOS if both sides were to get through. Unfortunately for Doc, nobody is going to care how many games he wins if the Bucks once again exit the playoff field early, and god forbid they blow a 3-1 lead along the way. I can't imagine Giannis would allow that to happen if he's healthy, but you never know.