Heading into the Cleveland Cavaliers game on Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks, I honestly expected this to be a game where Milwaukee could potentially pull away as the contest progressed. That’s even with the Cavaliers having won eight of their last 10 games.
The Cavs were the underdogs to the defending NBA champs here, and with Jarrett Allen having been a gametime decision it seemed because of illness, I wasn’t sure what kind of game we’d see from him, even if he were able to go. Allen missed Monday’s close win for Cleveland over the New York Knicks, for context.
The start of Wednesday’s game was a tough one, particularly defensively, for the Cavaliers, as the Bucks were red-hot from the three-point line, and were getting some money looks from the corners in catch-and-shoot situations. Milwaukee rode their hot shooting to a 35-point first quarter, after which they held a nine-point lead.
To a large extent, from there, though, the Wine and Gold had their way, and were making things really difficult on Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday and company. The Cavs rebounded with a big-time second quarter of their own with 39 points then, and would take a 65-57 lead heading into halftime.
From there, the Wine and Gold would ride the work of Evan Mobley and their defense the rest of the way, and ultimately landed a signature win to this point, 115-99 over the Bucks.
The Cavs have had other big-time Ws, sure; this one just had more to it. And Cleveland would jump Milwaukee to go to fourth in the Eastern Conference standings as a result, too, then bump to third even, and it was clearly a team effort against one of the premier teams in the NBA.
Mobley had 16 points, and while there were some tough possessions for him in the scoring sense, he get to the foul line seven times, hitting five, and his defense was exceptional. The dude had a heck of a jam over Antetokounmpo that was a momentum-builder as well.
The likes of Allen and Isaac Okoro did solid defensive work too, and while he had three fouls and played just 14 minutes, I thought Dean Wade in another start in place of Lauri Markkanen did still do fine, and had 10 points in a matchup Cleveland likely wouldn’t play him starters minutes anyway.
Additionally, although he would play limited minutes in the second half and left to go to the locker room during then before coming back a bit because of reportedly a tweaked back, Darius Garland was great when he was in. In his 26 minutes, he had 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including 2-of-3 from three, and had eight assists, and appeared to find more ways to be more effective with Holiday on him than the first game this season against him.
Hopefully the Cavs can manage that back issue moving forward for Garland, and three full days of rest ahead can help; we’ll see if he misses a few games to come.
But as far as the key to this W over the Bucks, and an area that underwhelmed a bit, we’ll dive into those here, for the squad overall.
On that note, we’ll get into the Cavs stud and dud from this signature W over the Bucks on Wednesday.
Even with us not necessarily hinting at it yet, the stud for the Cavaliers, winners of three straight, here was the bench.
Cavs stud: The bench
The Cavaliers starters did their thing, and I’m not taking anything away from Garland and the job Okoro, even with just three points, did against Holiday defensively for much of it, and Allen made Antetokounmpo work for everything. Cleveland’s rotations defensively and their help was far, far better from the first quarter on, and some of the whistles for Antetokounmpo were pretty questionable.
That said, the stud for the Wine and Gold from this impressive W over Milwaukee was the play of the bench, which outscored Milwaukee’s 57-15; they were the difference and their work played into Cleveland having 19 threes and 27 assists.
We have to give Kevin Love his props, as “Uncle Kev” had 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting, including a 5-of-9 shooting night from three-point land, to go with nine rebounds. Love and Cedi Osman, who had 23 points, four assists and two steals in 34 minutes and knocked in six triples in the game, were huge in sparking the Cavs here, and their efforts got Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse rockin’.
It’s been amazing to see how Love has thrived this season in a shift role after an injury-riddled past season, and while I’m never too high or low on Osman, given his inconsistencies and recent shooting slump, this was an amazing game from Cedi. These types of outings are part of why I get so frustrated at times from the swings over stretches of games from the 26-year-old wing, but Wednesday still showed he’s capable of being quite the bench spark.
From there as far as other notable bench contributors, Rajon Rondo did a solid job to me filling in as a bench playmaker, and while there were three turnovers from him, as he’s still getting his feel down with Cleveland, he did have five assists. His organizational sense has stood out when he’s been in there with the Cavaliers.
And last but not least, Lamar Stevens in 19 minutes was off offensively on 1-of-5 shooting, but he was impactful in other ways in getting floor burns going for loose balls, and his defensive efforts undoubtedly ignited the team.
The sturdy Stevens is an impactful on-ball and versatile defender, and his team defensive awareness continues to jump out; he had five rebounds (albeit two offensive) and three steals in this one. It’s been awesome to see Lamar contribute regularly when given the opportunities for much of this season, and he’ll only get better.
Okay, so next, we’ll look into where Cleveland could’ve been better in this one, and put our coaching hat on.
Cavs dud: At times forcing passes or cutting looks, leading to live ball turnovers or loss of momentum occasionally from them
It feels a bit nitpicky to proceed with a dud for the Cavaliers here with great they played, for the most part, for the last three quarters of this game against one of league’s best teams, even with them being inconsistent of late. Milwaukee has been working guys back in recent weeks, in fairness, and were still without Brook Lopez, who’s missed nearly all of this season to this point due to a back injury, and they didn’t have Wesley Mathews, either.
Regardless, the Cavs again had an outstanding performance here, in what was one of their signature wins of the season to this point.
However, for the sake of our stud/dud pieces, my dud for the Cavaliers here was them at times forcing passes or cutting looks that weren’t there, leading to some rough live ball turnovers.
Now, Cleveland had 12 turnovers, which wasn’t a ton of them, per se, but even with injuries playing some into it throughout the season, that’s been an issue for the Wine and Gold, particularly relating to forced dishes, leading to live-ball turnovers. Love had five giveaways, for instance; his were at times due to being doubled, as an aside.
The Cavs again didn’t have a boatload of turnovers, and Milwaukee on the other end had 19 in this one, with Giannis himself being on the hook for seven. The problem, though, was Milwaukee had 31 points off turnovers, whereas Cleveland had only 12; the Bucks had 13 fastbreak points, to Cleveland’s five.
That’s an area the Cavs can assuredly clean up, and it’s understandable that the Cavaliers are reportedly seeking backcourt/perimeter help via trade.
But generally, to reiterate, the Cavaliers got a heck of a dub here in this last one, anyhow, and hopefully, they can manage the back soreness seemingly for Garland.