Austin Rivers calls out dad’s rival team’s lack of clutch execution
Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers' son, Austin Rivers, who currently works at ESPN as a basketball analyst, sees that the NBA Eastern Conference leaders, Boston Celtics, have a glaring problem heading to the playoffs. The team has one of the most stacked rosters in the league, but the former Duke Blue Devil is not convinced that they can close out games.
The Celtics (55-14) currently own the best record in the entire NBA and have a 6.5-game lead for the No.1 overall seed. With just a few weeks left before the post-season, Boston has a prime chance of locking up home court advantage in the playoffs.
However, the regular season record is scratched by the playoffs as teams will battle through best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round.
As the stakes are getting higher, former NBA player Austin Rivers feel that the Boston Celtics are hard to trust in closing games as compared to the Milwaukee Bucks, who have a championship in 2021 to boast.
"They have the best regular season but that's the key word here is 'regular season'," said Rivers at the 4:48 mark. This team is very vulnerable in some ways on closing the game. The best guy right there, Jayson Tatum, one of my favorite players has not been best down the stretch particularly in the clutch nor has Jaylen Brown."
Austin Rivers is not convinced with Boston Celtics matchups against Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets
As the NBA playoffs are fast approaching and the bracketing picture is getting clearer, the Boston Celtics are most likely going to end up as the best team in the league during the regular season.
But with playoff defeat against the Miami Heat last year and struggles beating the Denver Nuggets this season, Austin Rivers feels that the Milwaukee Bucks may squeak past the Boston Celtics to represent the NBA Eastern Conference in the 2024 NBA Finals.
"We saw last year a team that was not even in the realm- if we are talking roster- Miami Heat go and punk that team and beat them in Game 7," Austin Rivers said. "Both games this year with Denver, they've lost. So are they better than Milwaukee? There is definitely a gap there but I have to see Boston be that team that we all want them to be."
Under Doc Rivers, the Bucks are 22-12, and their current record as of this writing is 44-25. They have the fifth-best record in the NBA right behind the Boston Celtics and NBA Western Conference teams, OKC Thunder, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves.
In their recent encounter, the Boston Celtics were able to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks, 122-119. Jayson Tatum led the team with 31 points, while Derrick White and Jaylen Brown had 23 and 21 points, respectively.