Doc Rivers had to call in the bullpen to finish out Thursday’s game, and now we know why.
The Milwaukee Bucks head coach Rivers left his team’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers early. As a result, assistant coach Darvin Ham stepped up to coach the Bucks for the remainder of the contest.
Bucks PR noted that Rivers was “not feeling well” and was back in the locker room watching the rest of the game.
Speaking with reporters after the contest, which Milwaukee won 126-113, Ham revealed the reason behind Rivers’ early exit. He said that Rivers was having stomach issues, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
Rivers, 63, is in his second season coaching the Bucks and his 26th season as an NBA head coach overall. While Milwaukee isn’t exactly elite this year at 42-34, they are closing in on clinching a top-six spot in the Eastern Conference regardless.
This season has definitely come with its challenges for Rivers and the Bucks. They made the difficult decision to trade Khris Middleton away at the deadline (effectively swapping him with Kyle Kuzma), and they also recently lost star guard Damian Lillard to a blood-clotting issue (though some good news did recently emerge on that front).
Milwaukee now has six games left in the regular season, and their ultimate playoff seed in the East (either No. 5 or No. 6) will likely be determined by their home-and-away set to close out the schedule against the Detroit Pistons, who have an identical record at 42-34 as well.
