Optimism, even at 1–3.

“I thought we played relatively well,” Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers said.

Satisfaction, even at 1–3.

“I think for the most part we played good basketball,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said.

Confidence is improving, even at 1–3.

“I thought we did a good job in the first half of our bond,” Bobby Portis said.

Hall of Fame NFL coach Bill Parcells had a saying: You are what your file says you are. The Bucks? They don’t buy it. A 119-108 loss to the Boston Celtics on Monday dropped Milwaukee to, you guessed it, 1-3. But after back-to-back losses to the Chicago Bulls (huh?) and Brooklyn Nets (yes), Milwaukee showed fight against Boston, taking a three-point lead into halftime before getting buried under an avalanche of three-pointers in the second half.

“I don’t like moral victories,” Rivers said. “But I thought (for three quarters) that this is what we can be.”

Fine. For three-quarters – 2½, if we want Real specifically, the Bucks looked like their peers. Damian Lillard got things rolling in the first half. Antetokounmpo too. Milwaukee’s defense kept everyone not named Payton Pritchard in check. The Bucks’ supersized frontcourt pounded the Celtics on the glass.

Everything fell apart in the third. The game was tied with five minutes to play in the quarter. By the end, Boston led by eight. The Celtics made seven threes in the third quarter. The Bucks? Zero.

“A team like this feeds off that,” Lillard said. “They get a stop, they get a steal, they get out, they run, they hit threes and that’s the game they want to play.”

That is how Boston wants to play. The Celtics took 47 threes against Milwaukee, a staggering number that was actually lower than the 51 they entered the game average with. Everyone in Joe Mazzulla’s rotation is a threat from beyond the arc. Before the game, Rivers emphasized Pritchard’s potential to go off. “I literally circled his name,” Rivers said. In the first half, Pritchard connected on seven of his first ten shots (including 5 of 8 threes) to keep the Celtics close.

The Bucks? They’re still figuring it out. After Sunday’s loss to lowly Brooklyn, Antetokounmpo said the team lacked an identity. Rivers complained about the lack of ball movement. Lillard was frustrated by the undisciplined starts. “How are we going to win the game?” Antetokounmpo asked reporters on Sunday. “Are we going to defend for 48 minutes? Are we going to move the ball for 48 minutes? Are we going to attack? We have to find an identity. We don’t have that now.”

Identity issues are common in new teams. Perfectly reasonable for example last Bucks of the season, which Lillard took over before the season and fired coach Adrian Griffin halfway through. This draft has some issues — chronically injured guard Khris Middleton is still out and Milwaukee is in the process of deploying a new defense — but they had a full training camp together and the core of the team returned intact.

When you watch the Bucks, you want to believe they will do well. Lillard is still a walking bucket. Antetokounmpo is a terror in the open floor. The rushing defense – terrible against Chicago and Brooklyn – was significantly better on Monday. Milwaukee shot 8-of-31 from three-point range against Boston, but missed a number of open looks; shots Middleton will likely make when he gets back on the floor.

“Most nights we feel really good about those shots,” Rivers said. “We will tell our guys: You gotta keep making those passes, because they were great passes for our shooters and they just didn’t fall tonight. So you live with that.”

Lillard said, “I think when things go well, it looks like we believe. And I think overall we’re a team that does believe, but I think the best teams, when it’s good, when it’s not good, when you’re down, when you’re up, they trust that they can areas continue to do the right thing. sides of the ball.”

There is urgency in Milwaukee. Perhaps more than anywhere else in the league. Lillard, Middleton and Brook Lopez are on the other side of 30. Antetokounmpo will join them in December. Realistically, in this draft at least, the Bucks are looking at a two-year window to win another championship. And the team that punched them in the third quarter did it without their starting center, Kristaps Porzingis, on the floor.

Things have to come together. Quick. In the Bucks locker room on Monday, the emphasis was on the positive. As for the defense in the first half, the early connectivity on offense, the ability to compete, at least for an extended period of time, with the best team in the NBA. They saw reason to believe that the stumbling blocks will be overcome early in the season.

“Even though we suck, even though we’re really, really bad, it’s the fourth game of the season,” Antetokounmpo said. “You have to be optimistic. This is the task we are in. But at the end of the day we have a great team. I believe we will continue to play better and learn from our mistakes.”