Even with Damian Lillard making an earlier return than anticipated, the road persists to be a problem for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Indiana Pacers held off an attempted comeback to take a 2-0 grip on the first-round series. Once again, the Bucks looked stumped in the face of the Indiana offense. Transitioning from their 3-1 regular season hold has been tough. But still, Doc Rivers doesn’t think it’s the end of the road.

The numbers say most teams with a 2-0 lead go on to win the postseason series. Yet, for Rivers, the series starts right now. “I look at it as a long series you know. We haven’t played a home game. Yeah so it’s almost like we’re 2 and 8 and someone said you know no one makes the playoffs,” the Bucks head coach stated.

There’s still a major problem. The starting lineup is struggling to contain the fast-paced Pacers’ offense. The starting unit with Lillard was -9 today. According to Rivers, the Bucks’ poor defensive stability is opening the game up for Indiana. “I think defensively just getting beat off the dribble and it’s everyone you know, and then I thought that unit did score, but we couldn’t get a stop,” he detailed.

One thing the Bucks coach is positive about is that his team can score. Giannis Antetokounmpo has been successful in both games. In addition, Damian Lillard will begin to flourish the more he plays at postseason intensity. The debacle is their decision-making.

“That unit also had those four turnovers to start the game. I thought we forced a lot of stuff there. So I haven’t watched the film, go back and look at it, but there’s changes we can make and there’s things we can do,” said Doc Rivers. Even with a veteran point guard running the show, things weren’t fluent.

In 16 minutes, the starting lineup played together, they generated 10 assists with seven turnovers. Recurring errors led to a 10-point swing in the Pacers’ favor from turnovers alone. Likewise, these are the two distinct facets that the Bucks need to improve over. But now that the series shifts into their territory, they do have some positive to take away from today.

A little light for the Bucks emerges

After Game 1, all the attention was focused on Kyle Kuzma. He had arguably his most embarrassing performance. He didn’t record a single point, rebound, or assist in the 20 minutes he was on the floor. Kuz was brought in to service as the third option behind Antetokounmpo and Lillard.

However, since the regular season, he has faced difficulties in adjusting to the Bucks’ system. Having come from a non-competitive team such as Washington, dealing with intensified pressure on his production has been rough. Today, though, he found marginal success. But it was a step in the right direction.

“He was aggressive. I thought he got more opportunities after last game, you know, we as his teammates, we got to recognize the opportunities that he’s going to get in transition when he’s running ahead the same way we, you know, want to pitch it up to Giannis, we got to see when that’s cool because when he’s getting downhill, it’s an issue for teams and he’s also a good playmaker in that situation,” Damian Lillard said about his teammate.

Kuzma was able to chip in with an efficient performance in the loss. He added 12 points while shooting 50% from the floor. But it’s not enough. When playing against the Pacers, having an aggressive offense is one of the ways to cancel out their scoring firepower. Today, Bobby Portis’ integral 28 points kept the game close.

What Milwaukee needs is for Damian Lillard to be as close to full fitness as possible and support the Greek Freak, and have a group of reliable scorers until that does happen. Having a supportive crowd could help sway momentum in their favor. But without the right ingredients, getting the better of Indiana is difficult.