Portland Trail Blazers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 125-112 on Tuesday, denying the visitors a 10th win in their last 12 games.

Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers believes his team played into the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers during their 125-112 defeat on Tuesday.

The loss has the Bucks in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with a 26-19 record, eight behind the third-placed New York Knicks.

But in Portland, Rivers thought his team gave the hosts too many allowances, while ruing the Trail Blazers' "awful" offense.

"I thought they got what they wanted all game, honestly," he said. "[They] beat us off the dribble the entire game, had a ton of their shots early on. It gets guys going, they make a couple and feel good.

"I never thought we established any kind of defensive presence the entire game. I don't know if they did either. I thought our offense was awful, I really did.

"I don't care if we were scoring, we didn't have the beautiful ball movement, [the] next pass hitting the open guy the entire night, we just didn't. The ball stuck all night."

The Bucks had initially gone 47-35 up and looked good for what would have been a 10th win in 12, but found themselves 64-61 down at half-time.

"We played a lot of iso-ball," Rivers added. "We're good enough on certain nights to get away with that, but when you do that and don't defend, and they live on the foul line, it's going to be a hard game to win.

" It was a disappointing game. I know we play better than that."

Former Trail Blazer Damian Lillard, who was traded to the Bucks ahead of last season, echoed his coach's comments, and suggested they could not live with Portland's aggression.

"I think they played with a lot of energy and defensive versatility," he said. "They've got a lot of different guys that handle the ball and put pressure on everyone. They just play an aggressive style.

"You can go from having a solid game, and then they see a couple of shots go in, they're an energy team. When things go well, they start to play even better and put more energy into the team.

"They crash the glass, they get extra opportunities. When you allow them to do that, they play their best - especially in this building. I thought we just allowed too many of those types of plays, and it ended up hurting us."