Bucks keep NBA Cup celebration bottled up after talking to Darvin Ham

After defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup Final, the Bucks left their champagne untouched. The locker room was covered in protective plastic, but the safety goggles remained unused, along with the promotional Michelob Ultra. The NBA Cup was a goal for the Bucks, but it wasn't the goal. That's an NBA title.

Doc Rivers and his lead assistant Darvin Ham decided that the Bucks weren't going to have a celebration full of champagne spraying despite winning the in-season tournament and earning $500K each. Perhaps they decided that players could buy and spray champagne on their own time after getting such a prize.

Or Ham remembered his experience after coaching the Los Angeles Lakers to an NBC Cup win last season, which LeBron James and his teammates followed up with an exuberant, champagne-soaked party.

After the Lakers did it up in Las Vegas, they lost their next game and five of their next six. When they won the Cup, the Lakers were 14-9. Four weeks later, they were 17-19 after a 3-10 stretch.

Ham may or may not think the celebration was what caused the Lakers' slump. Los Angeles finished the season in eighth place with a 47-35 record and had to win a play-in game to reach the playoffs, where they lost to the Denver Nuggets in five games, and Ham lost his job.

The Bucks had the opposite experience when they lost in the NBA Cup semifinal last season and promptly rattled off a seven-game winning streak — though their late meltdown in that semifinal was a factor in the team firing Adrian Griffin and replacing him with Rivers six weeks later.

But Rivers has also had success using delayed gratification as a motivational tactic. While coaching the Boston Celtics in 2010, Rivers demanded $100 from every player and team official before a road game in Los Angeles.

According to Kevin Garnett, Rivers put the accumulated money in the ceiling of the Staples Center locker room and told his team, "We're coming back to get that money...We're going to get back here, we're going to beat this team, and we're going to get our second ring in here."

The Celtics did get back to the NBA Finals, but they fell short of their second ring after losing Game 7.

Now, Rivers hopes that waiting inspires the Bucks to work for the ultimate champagne celebration after an NBA Finals win. It might even be a rematch against the Thunder. But if Rivers wants to provide some extra motivation, he can hide money when the Bucks visit the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Feb. 3.