Recap: Cleveland 113, Milwaukee 104 (or, Piece of Cake)

Once you get past a certain age, birthdays aren’t always worth celebrating (trust me… I know). Especially when you’re a major sports figure, and birthdays usually wind up being merely a critical measuring stick used as undeniable proof of the yearly erosion of your skills and ever approaching return to the rest of us mortals. But, sometimes, if they happen to coincide with a big night out with your friends, and 20,000 of your closest screaming admirers, birthdays can still be a hell of a lot of fun…

For Kyrie Irving, his 24th birthday came with such a celebration. The Cavaliers invited the Milwaukee Bucks over to their place, and proceeded to throw a huge party at their expense. They passed the rock around like so many wrapped gifts, threw down massive dunks to entertain the birthday boy and even helped Uncle Drew blow out the candles on the young Bucks before digging into the three layers of sponge and fondant pictured in the headline (courtesy of Fox Sports Ohio and TV63’s excellent sleuthing). All in all, much like Kyrie’s birthday cake, the game itself was a delicious slice of sugary sweetness (well unless you were the other birthday boy, Bucks coach Jason Kidd, who also happened to turn 43 today).

First Layer:

The man of the hour kicked off the festivities with an initial birthday bucket off an assist from LeBron, signaling from the jump just how much the ball was going to zip around the court for the Cavs in this one. After LBJ threw down his first of many dunks on the night, and another pretty finger roll from the birthday boy, the ball moved as J.R. Smith found Timofey Mozgov with a terrific pocket pass for an easy layup. Then both LeBron and Kevin Love out-hustled the long Bucks defenders down low for second chance opportunities, while Timo helped shut down the lane on the defensive end. About halfway through the quarter, just about the time the Bucks started to close the gap with their perimeter shooting… the Cavs amped up the party by mixing in some other sports to change the pace.

First, J.R., LeBron and Timo went with this volleyball bump… set… and spike!

That pass. 👀#CavsBucks BOX: https://t.co/9Z2sf3sm6ehttps://t.co/cecNN33BIE

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 23, 2016

Then, following an LBJ steal, KLove bowled the ball back to the King for a perfect strike…

https://vine.co/v/ipnZvgIYmwY

LeBron served up another helping to Kevin for a three-ball, and saved a slice for TT on a cutter to the hoop (giving him four assists for the quarter). Old friend, Much Danger Ninja (Jared Cunningham for the un-initiated) decided to try and crash the party by hitting a trey shortly after checking in, but the Cavs closed out the quarter with three straight trips to the line (LBJ, Shump and Delly) to push the margin to 10. They used high heat (59% shooting), to go with 13 boards and nine assists, and saw the lead rise to 35-25 after one.

Second Layer:

About the only things the Cavs didn’t do well in the first quarter was defend the three point line (the Bucks hit 4-5 from downtown) or use it to their advantage on offense (the Cavs shot just 1-8 from beyond the arc in the first). They set about reversing that, however, in the second frame, as both Shump and Kyrie dialed up from long distance. Kyrie’s wound up being of the four-point, banana-in-the-tailpipe variety, which begged for it’s own individual cake…

Unfortunately, the fun didn’t last, as the Cavs went 0-4 for the remainder of the quarter (just 3-14 total from deep in the first half). Channing Frye had a particularly miserable time of it, missing on all five of his triples (three in the first half), while having a tough time with the Milwaukee big men. The Cavs did manage to stop the Bucks from raining threes on their festivities (just two treys in the second), but at least some of that was due to the Bucks changing tack and going with a supersized lineup. John Henson, in particular, abused the wine & gold with an array of lefty hook shots, jumpers and alley-oops in the paint. He scored all 12 of his points off the bench in the second period.

LeBron checked back in around the halfway mark of the quarter to restore a small bit of order with this epic slam that turned the “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo into alphabet soup…

"He went THROUGH Antetokounmpo!" @CavsFredMcLeod on @KingJames' emphatic slam over the Greek Freak. #CavsBucks https://t.co/Z589mjjXLE

— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) March 23, 2016

(Here’s another look, just in case you also thought LBJ got fouled…)

But, the Bucks length continued to pose a problem for the Cavs, as the Alphabet got a modicum of revenge on the King by taking advantage of some shoddy box outs. Despite a semi-Loaded Wombat from Delly and TT, a timely JR Swish, a near touchdown pass from LBJ to Moz, and a beautiful Kyrie stop-on-a-dime-pullup-jumper, the Cavs just couldn’t seem to keep the Bucks off the board or boards. And, even though they had built a 13 point lead at one juncture, only a sneaky put-back by TT kept the Cavs in front at the half, 63-61.

Third Layer:

Looking to ruin Kyrie’s birthday bash, Milwaukee carried the momentum they had built up towards the end of the first half into the second, and even took their first lead of the game about two minutes into the third quarter. They capitalized on several Cavalier miscues and turnovers, and even though LeBron hit his only triple of the game to take the lead back, the Alphabet blocked his next one as the lead see-sawed. What this party needed now was a whole lotta Love…

Kevin proceeded to hit back-to-back threes off of some buttery-smooth ball movement in transition (an assist each from LBJ and Kyrie), to give the Cavs some much needed breathing room. Then, it was Bron’s turn to mix things up with his own personal highlight reel of lightning-strike, off-the-ball jams. The first one was sort of semi-Kraken-esque off a near impossible pass from Kyrie. The second was very close to a full on unleashing of the Kraken… with an exponential degree of difficulty given the no-look feed from a baseline driving J.R., and an almost dunk-contest-worthy reverse throw-down from the King that Fred McLeod dubbed “insane!”

"Officially insane, @KingJames!" @CavsFredMcLeod has called a number of James Jams tonight! #CavsBucks https://t.co/HulIgugRV4

— Bally Sports Cincinnati (@BallySportsCIN) March 24, 2016

Here it is again… in slow motion…

https://vine.co/v/ipndAqOJxrW

From there, the Cavs pushed their lead back out to double digits by getting the ball down low again to KLove and Moz (who both also played some good D in the quarter and each blocked a shot), and by attacking the rack to get to the free throw line (LBJ twice and Delly once). But, the Bucks hung tough, getting a couple of mid-range jumpers, plus an and-one drive from Much Danger Ninja. The Cavs lead was back down to 91-87 after three.

The Icing:

It’s likely that Kyrie’s forgot to include another successful stint as his alter-ego, Mister Fourth Quarter, in his birthday wishes, as evidenced by his cold shooting to start the frame. However, maybe his wish was for a more well-rounded game, as he continued to flirt with a triple-double by pulling down boards (eight for the game) and dropping dimes to his pals (also eight for the game), while playing some pretty inspired defense. His fifth assist set up KLove for his fourth triple of the game, his sixth one helped TT net three the hard way, and the seventh got J.R. a jumper to push the lead back to 10.

Following a couple of Greek Freak buckets, J.R. struck again (this time for three) off of some more great late-game ball movement by the Cavs. LeBron got to the line once again, and TT had a dynamite block on yet another Plumlee brother (this one comes with full mountain man beard to distinguish himself from other Plumlees). Yet, just when it looked like the Cavs could taste the birthday cake of victory and coast to another wine & gold win… Jared Bayless became the latest unstoppable force to plague them. The former backup went off for five straight points (seven in the quarter) to cut the lead back to six. Then came the possession that helped ice the game… and it included three Cavalier misfires. First J.R. missed a three, then LeBron missed a driving dunk, then Kyrie had a triple rim out… but every time, Tristan Thompson was there to snag the wayward caroms. Finally, TT decided enough was enough, and ended the 50 second possession by wrestling a third offensive board free, and hitting this tough layup on his own…

https://vine.co/v/ipn0mvLgwXj

Tristan Thompson 3 offensive rebounds on one possession. Animal on the glass

— Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) March 24, 2016

Milwaukee did it’s best to keep it close from there, but one last assist from the birthday boy to a cutting LBJ, followed by a corner three from J.R. (it was his bobblehead night after all) put the final icing on this confection. Cavs close it out, 113-104.

The Evil:

Who Let These Guys In? About the only real negative takeaway I had from this game was the Cavs’ rotations on defense, particularly in the second quarter and the beginning of the third. More specifically, when they failed to box the athletic Bucks out, and gave up too many offensive rebounds and easy points in the paint. That said, they did manage to clean this up later in the third and for much of the fourth quarter. After giving up 61 points in the first half, they limited the Bucks to just 42 in the second (17 in the final frame). Clearly, the Bucks’ length bothered the Cavs in the second period, especially when John Henson ate up their front line with his long-armed hook shots. But, the Cavs adjusted in the second half, and mostly Tristan stepped up to accept the challenge on the glass.

Let Them Eat Cake. Overall, the Cavs allowed the Bucks to shoot 54% from the field, but fortunately limited them to just 80 shots. They had a difficult time slowing Milwaukee down from the perimeter in the first half (6-8 from deep), but did a much better job (1-8) in the second half. Without a true point guard, the Bucks had to rely on Khris Middleton to do much of the facilitating, but he was still able to dish out 11 dimes on the evening (although most of those did come in the first half).

I’ll Just Have A Doughnut. After a slew of fairly productive games, Channing Frye was probably due for a clunker like tonight. The stretch big man wound up with a goose egg (0-5, all from beyond the arc) with zero rebounds. He did at least have a nifty block on MDN though. And, speaking of doughnuts, Richard Jefferson didn’t see a minute of floor time in this one. There was no scheduled rest reported, but it may still have been a case of maintenance and rest.

The Genius:

Birthday Boy. Nobody would have blamed Kyrie Irving if he decided to take a ton of shots as a birthday present to himself. But, that isn’t what happened. In fact, he showed the maturity and wisdom of a man who turned another year older, by doing all of the other things a point guard should do to help his team win games. Uncle Drew took a scant 10 shots (making half of them) for 16 points, but more importantly had a thoroughly well-rounded game by snagging eight boards, dishing eight dimes while only committing two turnovers. He also provided some solid effort and tenacity on defense, including a nice strip of Giannis and a steal.

Upside Down Cake. LeBron James came hard for the Bucks from nearly every angle. He threw down one monster jam after another, filling nearly a season’s worth of highlight reels for most players. He dunked from the front, he dunked from the side, he dunked one-handed… he even dunked backwards. Bron looks so much more athletic this year than last, and this game was a testament to that. Even though he didn’t shoot particularly well outside of the paint (just 1-4 from deep), he moved without the ball extremely well, and was almost constantly cutting to the hoop for easy throwdowns. He also had six boards and eight assists, two steals, a block and only two turnovers. He also had zero personal fouls, and maybe could have used a couple either bodying up the Greek Freak, or putting Jared Bayless on his rear end in the fourth. I know that’s nit-picking, and will probably change in the post-season, but the bottom line is that LBJ can afford to be a bit more physical with his defense.

Made With Love. Nate mentioned on an email chain that Kevin must have been a lot sicker than we realized the past week. Clearly, Love was feeling much better in his return to the lineup after a few days under the weather. Kev was aggressive scoring inside and out in this game, knocking down 8-14 shots (4-10 from downtown) for 24 points, while snagging 10 rebounds and getting four assists. Though he turned the ball over a few times, he also had two blocks and a steal, and was a team high +14 in 31 minutes. His contributions insured that this was one of the better combined performances from the ‘Land Lords this season.

Man, That’s Dynamite! Despite having a somewhat forgettable second quarter experience against the long arms of John Henson, Tristan came alive in the late third and entire fourth quarter. His defense and rebounding (particularly offensive) not only extended possessions, but changed the complexion of the game in the waning minutes. Canadian Dynamite was 6-9 for 13 points and pulled down 10 boards (five offensive, and three on one amazing possession), to help the Cavs out-rebound the Bucks 42-31. TT seems to be rounding into post-season form as the season winds down, and will be worth every penny of his $82M if he can continue to secure extra possessions for the Cavs once May and June arrive.

Russian Tea Cake. Mozzy’s play in this game was like a delicious and sweet, powdery confection compared to some of his earlier work this season. In just 21 minutes, the big man tossed in 5-6 shots for 10 points, three boards and a block. He also helped shut down the paint in the opening quarter, and his hands continue to improve. On the downside, he still missed a couple of rotations that led to turnovers, but in general he’s looked a lot more like his old self lately.

Klutch Bobblehead (pipe not included). Okay, this one has nothing to do with cake… but J.R. was clutch when the Cavs needed him tonight… and then he wound up signing with Klutch following the game. Outside of KLove, J.R. was the only Cav to have much success outside the arc in this one, going 3-7 for 13 points, including the three that put the icing on the cake (okay, there’s the tie in…).

JR Smith's bobblehead, sans any of his tattoos or pipe smh smh pic.twitter.com/GAeIkqPUGS

— Jordan Zirm (Cavs in 6) (@JordanZirm) March 23, 2016

Who Wants A Piece? For the second consecutive game, the Cavs moved the ball around with gusto. The 29 assists not only far exceeded the NOMAD 23 Rule, but also gave them 67 total over the last two contests. No matter how you slice it, if this team is moving the ball and moving their bodies around the court, good things are going to happen.

Parting Gift:

It’s still pretty amazing to me that Kyrie is just now turning 24 years old. It’s exciting to think that he’s just scratching the surface of what he’s capable of achieving, and is only beginning to enter his prime years. I hope that this game is a signifier of things to come with regard to his maturity and attention to rounding out his game to maximize its impact on the team. I’m sure he probably got some pretty sick presents from his teammates, friends and family… but I hope his true birthday wish was to put himself and his team in position to bring home a championship trophy. That will be the true icing on the cake.