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Cavs Vs Bucks: 5 Things We Learned

ByLuke Sicari|

It took 58 minutes of basketball but the Cleveland Cavaliers eight-game winning streak is over.

The Cavaliers were beaten by the Milwaukee Bucks 108-105 in double overtime on Saturday Night in Wisconsin, as the Cavs staged another brave fourth-quarter comeback but ultimately it wasn’t enough. Cleveland were down 82-71 with 6:33 remaining in the ballgame but LeBron James caught fire, scoring the last six points for the Cavaliers, including the game-tying dunk with 16.5 seconds to go to send the game to overtime. Milwaukee’s Jerryd Bayless missed a potential game-winner at the buzzer.

As usual, James was spectacular. He finished with a season high 37 points while also managing to pull down 12 rebounds and five assists all in 45 minutes of action. These numbers were compounded by seven turnovers (more on them later) committed by James though. Kevin Love finished with a double-double (also more on that later), as he tallied 24 points and 14 rebounds and Richard Jefferson provided a spark off the bench, putting up 14 points, including three three-pointer’s.

It was an all-around team effort for the Bucks. Bayless and Michael Carter-Williams led the team with 17 points apiece, while Giannis Antetokounmpo put up 16 points and 11 rebounds as he fouled out. Prized free agent signing Greg Monroe finished with 16 points and 17 rebounds. Saturday’s win snapped a two-game losing streak for Milwaukee.

Here are five things we learned from Cavs Vs Bucks:

Love Reaches A Milestone

It seems like every game a new Cavalier reaches a milestone or breaks a record. It was no different against the Bucks, as Love achieved another impressive feat, as the Cavs official twitter account pointed out.

Love’s 300th double-double is yet another sign of his unique and special skill-set. It’s rare to find a big-man with Love’s sweet shooting stroke and his boisterous rebounding action. It was only a couple of games ago when Love also reached an incredible milestone, as he become the second player in NBA history to hit 600 three-pointers while averaging 10 rebounds a game. The other player is Larry Bird.

Love has received his fair share of criticism since signing with Cleveland last summer but his position, as a truly elite superstar in this league is unquestionable. The milestones he is reaching are remarkable and his ability to hurt teams in multiple different ways keeps the Cavalier offense as one of the best in the league.

While a milestone was reached and he had the hot hand early, it wasn’t all good for Love against Milwaukee.

Milestone Reached, but Love Goes Missing Late

The Cavs started this game the way they needed to. After a poor shooting game the night before in New York, Love needed to get the ball early and often to pick himself up and that is exactly what happened.

Cleveland made a conscious effort to get Love involved in the opening quarter Saturday and it worked to perfection. Love finished with 12 points after one quarter and many of those looks came inside, as the Cavs were feeding him the ball inside the post. Love has stated on numerous actions this season how he rather would play inside-out then outside-in. It makes sense. Get some easy buckets inside, get to the foul line and all of a sudden those three-point looks become a lot easier. This was the case for Love for the first three quarters at least.

Love had 23 points after three quarters. He finished the game with 24.

For some odd reason, the Cavs stopped running plays and feeding Love the ball late in the game. Yes, James was on fire but Cleveland went back to the isolation-heavy offense of last season late in the game. It was frustrating to watch Love camping out in the corners during the overtime periods. He had the hot hand and the Cavs wasted it.

James has stated multiple teams this season that Love is the focal point on offense. At times, he has been. Being the focal point doesn’t mean scoring the most points. It means the offense runs through you and that happened early. By posting Love up, the defense is mostly focused on him, leaving shooters open and making the Bucks worry about the Cavs who haven’t got the ball.

All of that went away in the final quarter and overtime, as the isolation heavy offense the Cavs played made the Bucks not worry about the off-ball Cavaliers. This makes the possessions a lot easier to defend and this was seen in the second overtime period, as the Bucks simply swarmed James on his drives and forced him to miss shots.

Cleveland has done a better job at incorporating Love in the offense this season but there is still work to be done.

Fatigue Takes It Toll

Something that must be considered when breaking down the isolation heavy offense late in the game is the fatigue factor. Cleveland were playing on the second night of a road back to back and going into double overtime in this situation definitely isn’t ideal.

It was clear from the get go that the Cavs were a tired team. They were slow and looked half-asleep at times during the game. From standing around on offense to miscommunications of the defensive end, the Cavaliers energy level was not where it needed to be on Saturday.

While the comeback was definitely spirited, the Cavaliers can’t continue to play in spurts like they have all season. The Bucks game was no different and while it is hard to complain with the 8-2 start without the starting backcourt, it would still be nice to see the Cavs play a full four quarters of good basketball.

Turnovers

Turnovers haven’t been a major problem for the Cavs so far this season, as they have only averaged 14.7 a game. This wasn’t the case against the Bucks, as Cleveland committed 20 turnovers, which resulted in 27 Milwaukee points.

Playing against the Bucks is tough. They’re a long, athletic and energetic unit on the defensive end and this was on full display against the Cavaliers. Milwaukee got their hands in the passing lanes and constantly switched on pick and rolls, which is a strategy, the Cavs haven’t seen often this season. Instead of taking advantage of the mismatches, Cleveland failed to deal with the Bucks length and often turned the ball over due to good defensive pressure.

Sometimes though, the turnovers were simply lazy. Lazy passes, not running towards the ball, miscommunications on the offensive end or simply just not focusing when the ball was in their hands, the Cavs shot themselves in the foot on multiple occasions.

The Bucks are a team that loves to run and thrives off forcing turnovers and running in transition for easy baskets. They achieved that against the Cavs but numerous turnovers were simply a result of lazy Cavalier basketball.

Bucks Bullies

Milwaukee is the worst rebounding team in the NBA. They average 39.2 a game.

Milwaukee averages 45 points in the paint.

On Saturday though, the Bucks turned into big bullies in the paint, as they pulled down 51 rebounds, 15 of them on the offensive end. They also scored 54 points in the paint. They simply outworked and out-hustled the Cavs down low and this turned out to be a major factor in the loss for Cleveland.

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The Cavaliers are currently the sixth best rebounding team in the NBA and possess two of the most talented rebounders in the league in Love and Tristan Thompson. They shouldn’t be getting out-rebounded by a team that mightily struggles on the glass.

The offensive rebounds also killed the Cavs, as the Bucks had 18-second chance points. They average 14.5 a game. The biggest offensive rebound of them all came on the very last possession. With the Cavs down three and a three second differential between the shot and game clock, all Cleveland needed to do was get a stop and grab the rebound and they had a chance to send the game to a third overtime. They achieved part one but, as was the story of the night, Monroe out-hustled the Cavs on the glass to secure the offensive rebound and put the nail in the coffin of Cleveland’s winning streak.