One stud and one dud for Cavs in loss to the Bucks on Monday
By Corey Casey
In this game for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday at the Milwaukee Bucks it just didn’t appear the Cavs really looked right and they may have not had their legs under them. Coming off a thrilling game against one of the best teams in the Western Conference in the Utah Jazz, which went down to the wire in a 109-108 loss, it just didn’t look like the Cavaliers had it on Monday night.
A couple times it looked like the Bucks were going to pull away, but to the Cavs’ credit they didn’t allow that to happen and were able to muster up enough energy to stay in the game.
It was really a rough one for the two cornerstones of the Cavaliers franchise in Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. They shot a combined 6-of-22 from the field, and had a combined 7 turnovers.
Garland did have 9 assists, but Jrue Holiday, whose known for his defense, made things difficult for Garland all night. Mobley played the most minutes (37) in the Cavs’ narrow loss against the Jazz, while Garland was tied for second at 35. Turning around after a loss like that isn’t easy, particularly when Mobley was guarded often by Giannis Antetokounmpo for stretches, while Garland had to go up against Holiday, and that’s tough.
It just wasn’t the Cavs top two players not having it, as some key reserves, who are reasons the Cavs are a competitive 13-12, just didn’t have it, either. Kevin Love was really good on Monday with 15 points, while shooting 5-of-11 from the field with all of those from 3, but Love was the only reserve that had it going. Ricky Rubio and Cedi Osman have been fantastic coming off the bench for the Cavs and have been key for them at this point in the season; they just didn’t have it Monday, either.
Rubio did have 9 assists , but only shot 2-of-9 from the field and 1-of-4 from three-point range. Osman came into this game shooting 43.0 percent from deep, but had a rare off night from there, by this season’s standards, and shot 1-of-8 from 3.
It says a lot about this team that with all of those things, they were still able to make this game so competitive. A bunch of guys just didn’t have it against the defending champs, but they had a fighting chance in the fourth.
With that said, here we’ll highlight one stud and one dud for the Cavaliers in their 112-104 loss to the Bucks.