Doc Rivers hasn’t gotten off to the best start as the Milwaukee Bucks‘ midseason head coach replacement, but Sunday was a good day.
He and the Bucks traveled to Philly to face the Philadelphia 76ers, the team that fired him at the end of the 2022-23 season, for the first time since he was hired by the Bucks in January. Rivers went in with a painful 4-7 record as Bucks head coach, but emerged with a definitely-less-painful 5-7 after the Bucks stuffed the Sixers, 119-98. He also managed to completely ignore a loud chorus of boos he received upon his return.
“I didn’t even hear it, to be honest,” Rivers said after the game, via ESPN. “That means I was back at home.”
The game didn’t look like it would be a blowout from the start. The Bucks and Sixers remained competitive until halfway through the first quarter. With 6:26 left the Sixers took a 17-16 lead, which would end up being their last lead of the entire game. The Bucks took over from that point, doubling their score by the end of the quarter, while the Sixers managed to score just four points over the final six-and-a-half minutes.
The Sixers saw a little more success in the second quarter, but it looked like the game was pretty much over by midway through the third quarter, with the Bucks were easily defending a…
