Big three provides blueprint in Cavs win over Bucks

The Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a pesky Milwaukee Bucks team thanks to a balanced output from the Cavs big three.

LeBron James recently ditched playing pre-game music through his Beats Pill, instead listening to his own personal playlist through his headphones.

It’s anyone’s guess what James was listening to, but with the way the Cavaliers big three performed in their 113-104 victory over Milwaukee, Jay Z’s ‘The Blueprint’ album seems appropriate.

There have been numerous questions and criticisms over how the big three has meshed together in Cleveland. From James’ passive-aggressiveness leadership and his rumored frustration with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. To Irving’s shoot-first, pass-second play style and Love’s inability to fit in (or out, depending on how much you listen to James’ twitter account), the trio has been appraised over their dysfunction rather than their set of talents.

However, whatever the three amigos of this Cavalier unit found in the win over the Bucks must be bottled and repeated night after night.

There was no slight of frustration from James, who was in attack mode all night on his way to throwing down five monstrous dunks. James finished with 26 points, eight assists and six rebounds, five of them coming on the offensive glass. After a week of meaningless off court drama, it seems like James has officially entered playoff mode.

In a similar way he did against the Denver Nuggets a couple of nights prior, James didn’t settle for jumpshots, an aspect of his game that has been MIA all season. Instead, James has been getting to the rim and finishing with ease. The Cavaliers have also used James off the ball more often over the past couple of games, where he is his most dangerous.

Having an athletic freak like James cutting off the ball and diving to the rim is impossible to defend. One particular play had J.R. Smith controlling the ball on the baseline. All five Milwaukee defenders kept their eyes on the ball, leaving a wide-open paint for James to cut into. The result wasn’t a surprise, as James flew in and delivered a powerful two hand reverse slam.

“It’s not a trick dunk for myself,” James said of the dunk, via cavs.com. “Just reading and reacting to the defense. I definitely wanted to finish strong at the rim and just taking it into my own hands. Give my grandkids something to look back on.”

As James gets into his playoff mindset, Irving has been battling with the constant speculation that his scoring mentality has been rubbing some teammates the wrong way. Those talks were shelved, for one night anyway.

A stat line of 16 points, eight assists and eight rebounds is one unforeseen from Irving. There was no over-dribbling or isolation basketball from Irving against the Bucks. All of Irving’s 10 field goal attempts were within the flow of the offense and he didn’t force anything.

Now, Irving will be shooting more than 10 shots on most nights. For the Cavs to be at their best, he needs to. Although, he shouldn’t forget what he did against Milwaukee. Keeping the ball moving around the perimeter and making that extra pass aren’t skills that have been linked with Irving. Neither is staying back and making an impact on the glass. When James and Love are scoring efficiently, Irving needs to find a way to help the Cavs without bringing the offense to a halt and he found this formula against the Bucks.

“It has a lot to do with me and “Bron’s” (LeBron James) decision-making coming off of the pick and rolls,” Irving said of the ball movement, via cavs.com. “When teams load up as much as they did tonight, we just have to have our bigs making plays and guys on the weak side getting ready to shoot.”

As for Love, whose been stuck in a shooting slump for months, he was able to identify the line between being aggressive in the post while spacing the floor at the same time. Finishing with 24 points, 10 rebounds was impressive, but more importantly, Love was able to bump those percentages up, shooting 8-of-14 from the field and 4-of-10 from beyond the three point line.

“I was shooting the ball when it was there,” Love said, via cavs.com. “I had a couple of shots at the end that I really liked and they were right there for me. We had the swing-swing with J.R. (Smith) that he knocked down for us and that gave us the separation which was big for us.”

Far too often this season, Love has been a statue outside the arc and waited for the ball to come to him. Subsequently, Love would throw up a three-pointer out of rhythm and miss. This neglected Love’s capability to be a machine in the post and it also amplified his defensive shortcomings.

Love was able to do both against the Bucks. Jacking up 10 three-pointers out of 14 shots is probably still too much, although none of those shots were forced. All of the triples came within the offensive system and were mostly wide open. When the shot wasn’t there, Love aggressively drove to the basket and was able to get to the line.

One of the reasons Love was able to find his touch against the Bucks was that his teammates made a conscious effort to get him the basketball in spots where he is the most comfortable. Unlike Irving, Love can’t just turn it on offensively when he feels like it. He needs to get into a rhythm early into the game and gain confidence. The Cavs know this and it worked wonders for them against the Bucks. This was a by-product of Cleveland moving the ball all night long, leading to 29 assists, after dishing out 38 the game prior against Denver.

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“I thought we moved the ball very well,” coach Tyronn Lue said, via cavs.com. “I thought early in the game when (Milwaukee) started the game switching the point guard onto Kevin, we took advantage of that. They had to double-team and Kevin got some shots off. We just continued to move the ball. I think when we do that we’re tough to beat.”

As Lue alluded to, when the Cavs are moving the ball, it forces the defense to break down. This creates mismatches that Cleveland can exploit and they were able to do that with Love. The constant movement also gave James plenty of room to work off the ball and it allowed Irving to find the passing lanes necessary to deliver the ball on time and on target.

The Cavs big three can affect the games in a variety of different ways but if they can replicate the performance against the Bucks, it will go a long way in their championship aspirations.