The Pre-Re: Recap of the Cavaliers 106-100 preseason win over the Milwaukee Bucks

In a game that saw three of the Cavs’ presumptive starters sitting out — Kyrie Irving (ankle), LeBron James (rest) and Tristan Thompson (shoulder) — the pressure was on its remaining two, Kevin Love and Dion Waiters, to step up and fill the void. The void was filled all right; filled up like the basket on one of Love’s five three pointers in seven tries on an evening where he scored 25 points in just 20 minutes on the court. It was filled up like Waiters on his way to 23 points. It was also filled by having to play a Milwaukee Bucks team that was missing regulars Larry Sanders and Brandon Knight and, well… you know, is the Bucks. Still, it was nip and tuck for most of the way, with the Cavs bench putting it away late to improve their preseason record to 3-0 with a 106-100 win at The Q.

Save for a Cavs mini-run in the first quarter that put the team up by 11, the game remained close throughout. Yes, Love and Waiters were the main story — and we’ll get to them — but here was the lineup David Blatt went with for much of the fourth quarter with the game’s outcome still in doubt: A.J. Price, Joe Harris, Chris Crawford, Shane Edwards and Alex Kirk. The Bucks, meanwhile, rode their regular rotation through the tight fourth — Ersan Ilyasova, Zaza Pachulia, John Henson, rookie Jabari Parker and Giannis Antetokounmpo, starting at point guard for the first time — and still couldn’t quite get over the hump.

Now, this is preseason. Of course. It’s the preseason. This is not to suggest that the end of the Cavs bench is just as good as the Bucks starters, although it was fun to watch the Cavs’ rookie-and-free-agent-palooza gut out the win. This is more about the coach. At no point did Blatt feel like he had to ride Love and Waiters more because of his shuffled roster. All the regulars got their minutes and then they were done (except for a few minutes from Mike Miller and Matthew Dellavedova in the fourth). Not having his starters was, for Blatt, a chance to get to see how some of his other guys would react to longer stretches. Harris was the first player off the bench and played 24 minutes scoring six points on 2-6 shooting. Kirk played 21 and notched 8 points, three boards and (most importantly) two blocks. The fact that Blatt seems to see the long game of the season — resting guys, keeping minutes down, developing the end of the bench — and is still managing wins (albeit the preseason variety) is pretty impressive for a coach still cutting his teeth on the NBA game.

Now, coach, about that defense…

The Bucks blistered the Cavs from both the rim and the three point line in this one. Good thing those aren’t two places teams like to score from very often.

[beat]

The Bucks were shooting well over 50% from the field for the first half and, while the defense awoke in the third quarter, it awoke hungover and in desperate need of that first cup of coffee. What had been the defense-of-idly-standing became, at least, the defense of scrambling around and, while the team was still vulnerable from close range and from deep, the effort caused the Bucks to miss a few more than they made. For the game, the Bucks shot 46.8% from the floor and 41.2% from three. That’s… not good. That’s practically Byron-Scottian. When you’re missing two of your top three players, you expect a bit of an offensive let down. That wasn’t the case. The Cavs could still score just fine. The let down was on the other end with Henson and Pachulia feasting down low and no one (cough… Joe Harris… cough) bothering to get anywhere near Jared Dudley, who wound up going 5-5 from distance.

Plus, by the third, most of the starters were at the end of their evening’s tour, so the team never really had the chance to turn that increased effort into a lead of any great substance.

In fact, with the way Love and Waiters were playing, if the team (Love and Waiter included) had seemed to care at all on the defensive end, the Cavs might have wound up running away from the Bucks.

Love showed off his entire offensive arsenal and should have Cavs fans doggy-paddling in a pool of their own drool thinking about this team’s offense once they all get better acquainted with each other. It wasn’t just the 5-7 from three. It was how silky his shot looked and all the different action that resulted in those shots. This isn’t just a guy camping out behind the three point line. Blatt’s offense has action going on both the strong and weak side and any one of a number of moves could wind up with Love freed up for an open three. Anderson Varejao twice passed up a good shot because he had Love nearby free from deep. Once, Waiters drove full-speed from the top of the key, went baseline under the basket only to zip a pass to — you guessed it — a wide-open Love beyond the arc. Love got it done in the post, on a nifty bank shot off one leg from 15 feet out and even notched a four-point play when he got a contested three to rattle home.

Love’s defense, on the other hand, continues to leave something to be desired. It will need to leave a little less to be desired, at some point, or this will not be a championship team. It doesn’t have to leave nothing to be desired. Just a little less. Come on. A little less…

Waiters, meanwhile, had himself a funny game. He started out a little overaggressive on both ends of the floor. For Waiters, though, overaggressive on offense meant that the ball would stick to Dion when it got to Dion and Dion would try to make a Dionian thing happen with said ball. That took the team out of its more pass-happy offense and, even when the play would result in a Waiters bucket, caused many to be visited by the Ghost of Cavs Offenses Past which, while not as life-altering as seeing the death of Tiny Tim or anything, is still unpleasant enough.

In the third period, though, Waiters got on a bit of a roll where he showed that his shooting numbers from the end of last season were no joke. Waiters is becoming a big time spot up shooter — nearly money(ish) — when he gets to his spot and takes a shot in rhythm. Cavs Twitter seems to lose its collective mind whenever Waiters pounds the ball and gums up the offense and there is no denying that the third year player reverts to some bad tendencies here and there. But the longer he plays in this system with these teammates, the fewer times those tendencies will occur (I’m betting… no, I don’t know) and there’s too much to like in Waiters’s game to only focus on the fact that he seems to be the only player in the NBA completely devoted to Mike Brown’s offense.

On defense, the overaggressive Waiters… well, he just looked a little grabby. That’s great, you know. You prefer grabby to standing around and letting your man nail open threes (cough… Joe Harris… cough) but Waiters still has some ways to go in figuring out the subtle differences that separate the physical from the foul-prone. Waiters has shown real growth in accepting the call on the defensive end. His play against Dwyane Wade in Brazil was good aggressive. Too often against Milwaukee on Tuesday night, the aggressiveness was less effective.

Yes, the Bucks do have a couple of interesting players in Parker and Antetokounmpo, but neither really impressed tonight. As a point guard, Antetokounmpo finished with four points (0-5 from the field) and zero assists. Parker scored 18 points on 7-12 shooting, but did much of his damage in the second half against the Cavs’ C-Team. If any other players jumped out at you from either side, please bring that up in the comments section.

Two scary moments: both Love and Varejao knocked knees with Bucks players. Love stayed in the game, while Varejao went out. Remember, it was taking a knee to his lower thigh that cost Varejao much of the 2012-13 season. Hopefully, it nothing but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Blatt rest, at least, Varejao for tomorrow’s game against Indiana.

Next, the Cavs, looking to stay unbeaten in the preseason, head south to Cincinnati on Wednesday to face the Indiana Pacers on the campus of Xavier University. By then, the regular season will be only two weeks away. It cannot come fast enough.