After four defeats in a row, the Bucks desperately needed to win to break this bad streak. They did not come far from doing so against the Cavaliers, undefeated since the start of the season, leading by one point with less than ten seconds remaining.
It all came down to one last possession from Donovan Mitchell. The Cavaliers fullback almost lost the ball, before regaining control and hitting from mid-distance, against Gary Trent Jr. “I think we defended well”, believes Doc Rivers. “Donovan made a complicated shot, you have to live with that. »
This successful shot changes everything for the Bucks, who now find themselves with five defeats in a row and 14th place in the East. If the ball ricochets off the circle and does not return, Giannis Antetokounmpo and his teammates could have ended their black streak and returned to the Top 10 of their conference.
The bottom before the results
“I don’t focus on results. It's not my job. My job is to focus on the things I can do better, that I can control. I'm a basketball player”, recalls the Greek. “I can't control the outcome of a match. I can have control over the things that happen during the meeting and hope that the outcome is good. And things in this match were good. »
Already reassured, despite the setback, by their performance against the Celtics, the Bucks do not want the defeat on the scoreboard to make us forget the content of the meeting, so that Donovan Mitchell's shot erases the previous 47 minutes and 50 seconds where Milwaukee held off the current best team in the Eastern Conference.
“He can miss his shot and the story is not the same,” insists the MVP of the 2021 Finals. “I can't control this shot, nor the action he is going to make and this beautiful shot he scored at the end. I can't do anything about it. It took me a while to think like this. Now, as leader of this team, I think we are moving in the right direction. That doesn't mean we're going to win five or ten matches in a row, but I know we're better, we trust each other, the ball is moving. There are a lot of good things we can do, that's all we can control, but not the outcome of a match. »
