Pacers Have Massive Advantage Over Bucks in Playoffs for One Reason

The Indiana Pacers enter the playoffs with the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and a chance for 50 wins in the final game of the season. They will face the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the NBA playoffs, the team they happened to beat last season.

While the teams don’t appear all that different from last year, injuries could play a huge role. Giannis Antetokounmpo was injured last year, and Damian Lillard may be injured this year.

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However, the players on the court may not even be what separates these two teams in the end. Based on recent playoff history, Doc Rivers, head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, maybe a huge advantage for the Indiana Pacers.

Yes, the opposing team’s coach may be a big reason why the Pacers go on to win this series. In his playoff history, Rivers has seemingly underperformed. He has blown multiple 3-1 leads, struggled to overcome injuries to his teams, and overall has had weird issues within his teams in multiple stops.

Rivers is known for being stubborn, which is a big reason why his teams can often flounder when things aren’t going right. When things are going right, his teams look good and capable of making a playoff run. However, as soon as the opponent makes counter-adjustments, his teams can look really bad.

With the Clippers, he blew a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference Semifinals. In the 2020 Western Conference Semis, he also blew a 3-1 lead to the Denver Nuggets.

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In each stop he has been at, he seems to be plagued by injuries, with Kevin Garnett being the earliest culprit in 2009. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin also dealt with the injury bug, which was then passed on to Joel Embiid.

In 2021, the 76ers inexplicably lost to the Atlanta Hawks in seven games, which was catapulted by Ben Simmons suddenly being scared to play basketball. While all of these things can come down to bad luck, at some point some of the blame falls on the coach for not managing his players well enough.

Through a combination of stubbornness, bad luck, and inconsistency due to poor player management, it seems clear that the Pacers should have a coaching advantage along with home-court advantage in their first-round matchup with the Bucks.

Even if Damian Lillard is relatively healthy and plays well in the series, it seems inevitable the Bucks will implode for whatever reason, allowing the Pacers to overcome them for the second consecutive season.

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