Doc Rivers Explains Shocking Lakers Loss: Bucks 'Let Our Foot off and We Got Burned'

Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers had a simple explanation for his team blowing a 19-point lead in a 128-124 double-overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.

After watching his team lead by 16 after the first quarter and 14 entering the fourth quarter before losing, Rivers told reporters the following: "We let our foot off and we got burned. That's all that is. When we played right at the beginning of the game, it was beautiful basketball. We stopped playing right and thought we could still win and we couldn't."

The Bucks were essentially playing at full strength and the Lakers were without superstar LeBron James, who did not play Tuesday due to ankle soreness.

That should have made for a relatively easy win for Milwaukee, and it seemed that would be the case for a while, but the Lakers other stars put the team on their back.

Anthony Davis, who played a game-high 52 minutes, went off to lead all scorers with 34 points, while also recording 23 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Also, Austin Reaves had a triple-double with 29 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists, while D'Angelo Russell registered 29 points and 12 assists.

Perhaps most importantly, the three of them combined to go 22-of-23 from the free-throw line, and the Lakers went 30-for-32 as a team.

Comparatively, the Bucks were just 11-of-17 from the charity stripe, and Giannis Antetokounmpo had a particularly rough time, going 1-of-6 and spoiling his 29-point, 21-rebound, 11-assist triple-double.

Milwaukee led by as much as 19 in the fourth quarter, but the Lakers went on a 9-0 run after that, and the Bucks scored only seven points for the rest of the quarter.

Taurean Prince hit two clutch free throws with 43.2 seconds left in the fourth to ultimately force overtime, and Russell forced double overtime with two free-throw makes with three seconds remaining in the first OT.

Reaves gave L.A. a three-point lead with a triple with 38.1 seconds left in double OT, and Russell and AD helped put the game away by making their free throws.

The Bucks didn't do the little things they needed to do in order to seal the deal during regulation, which has become a theme for the team.

While Milwaukee is still second in the Eastern Conference with a 46-26 record, it is only 14-12 since Rivers took over as head coach following the firing of Adrian Griffin.

With Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard leading the way, the Bucks have the talent to go the distance and win a championship, but their recent play suggests they are also a candidate to get upset in the first round of the playoffs just like last year.