After returning to Milwaukee following two tough wins in Detroit, the Bucks elected to fire first-year head coach Adrian Griffin with the team sitting at 30-13, the second-best record in the Eastern Conference behind the Boston Celtics.

“This was a difficult decision to make during the season,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst said in a statement. “We are working immediately toward hiring our next head coach. We thank coach Griffin for his hard work and contributions to the team.”

Joe Prunty, who was the Bucks interim coach for the final 37 regular-season games of the 2017-18 season when the team fired Jason Kidd, will assume those duties in the interim.

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The team will consider Marquette University alumnus and current ESPN broadcaster Doc Rivers for the position.

Horst will address the media at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday before the Bucks host the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m..

Despite Milwaukee’s record and historic offense – and an MVP-caliber season in the works from Giannis Antetokounmpo – the team had struggled defensively since the beginning of the season. Griffin has a strong pedigree as a defensive-oriented coach, but the veteran-laden team had not quite meshed with his style.

The Bucks ranked near the bottom of the league in opponent points per game (25th at 120.5) and defensive rating (22nd at 116.8 points per 100 possessions). They were also 26th in opponent three-point percentage (34.7%) and last in turnovers created. Milwaukee continued to struggle with transition defense, as well.

Milwaukee is scoring 124.6 points per game, which would rate as the fifth-best scoring mark in NBA history and by far the best in franchise history.

The Bucks fired Mike Budenholzer in early May following a stunning upset in the first round of the playoffs and underwent an exhaustive search before settling on Griffin formally in early June. After playing nearly a decade in the league, Griffin's coaching career began under Scott Skiles in Milwaukee in 2008. He then served as an assistant in Chicago, Orlando, Oklahoma City and finally Toronto, where he won a championship in 2019.

This was Griffin's first head coaching job.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Bucks fire head coach Adrian Griffin