Recap: Cleveland 124, Milwaukee 119 (or, National TV, No Problem)

Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer

Cleveland continued their trend of only coming up with great performances in national TV games (even if it was just NBATV), but what a performance it was (at least offensively) as Cleveland rode LeBron James, Kevin Love, and J.R. Smith (finally!) to a double digit fourth quarter lead that proved to be margin enough as Cleveland to hold off Giannis Antetokounmpo and the young Bucks for a quality win.

Sure, it’d be nice if Cleveland had played better defense. They allowed Milwaukee to shoot 57% from the floor, but they also used Milwaukee’s aggressiveness against them, to go 50% from the field themselves, and to shoot a whopping and impressive 33-38 from the free throw line. The Bucks didn’t even argue most of these calls, as they bit on pump fake after pump fake and reached instead of moving their feet throughout the game.

Cleveland raced out to a monster first quarter, dropping 39 on the Bucks to Milwaukee’s 28. The Cavs’ big three: LeBron, J.R., and Kevin went for 10, eight, and 12 respectively and shot a combined 9-10 in the quarter. Cleveland made it a point to run some plays for J.R. early and get him open on a couple screens out the wing. He buried one, and it was was all she wrote. He was back in the zone. Unfortunately, the Alphabet and Malcolm Brogdon got it going themselves, with Giannis dropping ten and Brogdon canning a couple treys for the Bucks.

The Cavs played with energy, and used the Bucks’ kamikaze D to get in the bonus by the 9:32 mark. Love worked all over the key from the elbow on down to get to the line 7 times in the quarter. Lue’s crew even ran a decent amount of scripted plays to look competently coached. It was a good tone setter. Kyle “La Flama Blanca” Korver shook free for an off-the-bounce trey over Tony Snell right before the first quarter buzzer for further tone setting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8kK1zlWKCI

All good things come to an end though, and the Cavs’ second quarter was ugly, as the Wine and Gold gave up 39 while only scoring 26. The bench lineup: Dwyane Wade, Kyle Korver, Shump, Jeff Green, and Derrick Rose looked unexpectedly competent for a time, but devolved into questionable shots and an inability to execute a coherent offense. More than one commenter was wondering why the heck Channing Frye wasn’t playing. I mean could he have done much worse than allowing the Bucks to shoot 70% from the floor? The Cavs had problems getting into their offense and turned it over five times in the period. The fact that the Bucks stuck to Korver like glue, and that no one else on that lineup has any ability to stretch the floor didn’t help either. At least running that Frye/Korver Wing action would’ve opened some stuff up.

By the time the starters returned, the Bucks were rolling. Yes, the Bucks went 5-5 from mid-range, but the they waltzed their way through the lane for too many wide open layups and easy post-ups, as Cleveland was content to counter Giannis with Jae Crowder and no help. The Alphabet’s post-up into the spin move (and an uncalled travel 75% of the time) was in full effect as he went 5-5 to score 11 points in six minutes against the hapless Cavs. Khris Middleton dropped another 13, playing the whole second quarter as he used Cleveland turnovers as transition opportunities to get himself going. Fortunately Cleveland had Love and LeBron who least paced the scoring as Kevin got to the line five more times, and the Cavs ended the half down just 67-65.

The Cavs got some juice in the third quarter in the form of an unstoppable Kevin Love who was working around the basket to drop 12 on 5-7 from the floor, and gather five offensive rebounds. He was scoring on post-ups, dribble drives, and putbacks and controlled the paint. He even stuffed Antetokounmpo on a layup attempt.

Kevin was on his way to his best game of the season, but the Greek Freak was similarly unstoppable has he spun his way into 15 in third. The Cavs were at least able to at least generate five turnovers and limit themselves to just a pair. It didn’t hurt that Jae Crowder and J.R. Smith got off the schneid from three, and Jeff Green deposited a sweet feed from the King with a monster jam in transition.

Slowly Cleveland was pulling away by just slightly out-executing the Bucks. The Bucks have a lot of guys who can be offensive non-factors: Snell, Maker, Delly, Liggins, Teletovic, Henson. They all had zero point quarters. And when Giannis isn’t scoring, the Bucks struggle. Only Brogdon (six points) and Snell (two) helped the freak out. By quarter’s end it was 94-90 good guys.

The fourth quarter started with a massive brain fart as four Cavs collapsed on a Matthew Dellavedova drive. That should never, ever happen. The predictable result: a wide open Teletovic three. Shumpert “answered” with an I-didn’t-really-call-bank-but-it-went-in pull-up as the shot clock was going down. A few plays later, the whole Cleveland defense collapsed again on a Brogdon drive that led to another Mizra shot clock beating trey. UGH.

Happily, J.R. had a gunslinger trey of his own followed by a right lane runner off the glass. An old school Wade step-back pushed the lead to double digits before Kyle Korver lost Teletovic who canned yet another trey. Two minutes of tough D and a couple of unexpected baskets by Shumpert, one an intentional banker, and the other a hardunkachud! pushed the lead back up to ten.

LeBron countered the Alphabet’s 40th point with a nifty little step back trey from the right wing (LeBron’s 2017 J is for real, yo). After a Henson oop, the the Cavs burned a minute off the clock with a two offensive rebound possession. The Bucks kept coming though, often aided by bad Cleveland defense.

Check out this clip where Kevin opens up to the wrong side and doesn’t push Middleton to his help, which leads to a terrible collapse by Shump who leaves Brodon in the corner for another three. Sandwiched in there were six points by Kev and LeBron as they got basket or the free throw line with post-ups and drives. Cleveland was up 120-114 before the Bucks lost ball out of a timeout, and then James sealed the game with a Jordanesque turnaround from the right block that tickled nothing but twine. It’s queued up here.

A running Middleton trey made it interesting, but with a five point lead, Kev’s hustle gave the ball back to the Cavs after a J.R. miss with 18 seconds left, and the Cavs held on to win.

WHEW!

Cleveland needed this in the worst way after laying an egg against Atlanta. But they did stick with the narrative of only getting up for quality opponents and national TV games. Kevin Love was an animal and finished with 32 and 16, plus three dimes, two steals, a block, and only two turnovers in by far the best game of the season. Interestingly, the Banana Republican didn’t take a shot outside the arc, but he hooked, dribbled, bullied, spun, and pump faked his way to nine 9-14 from the field and 14-16 from the line.  More of that, please.

Knock on wood to ward off the jinx, but Cleveland has been really good from the line so far this year. They’re sixth in the league in free throws made and second in free throw percentage at 82%. 33-38 is pretty damned good, and the reason they won. They’re ninth in free throw attempts. For a team that has a hard time running, getting to the line should be a part of their mission statement. The best way to stop fast breaks is made free throws.

LeBron James played a sane 36 minutes and finished with what Fred McCloud called “the quietest 30 points of his career.” James went for 30, eight boards, and nine dimes and most importantly only one turnover to finish a game high +6.

It was wonderful to see James get some help, and Dwyane did a nice job running the second unit with 10 and three dimes, three boards, two blocks, a steal, and one turnover. Flash had a couple great defensive plays too, including a block on Giannis (that should’ve been a foul, but I love the effort). They need him to be a playmaker, because as we know, Rose is just a driver, and LeBron’s the point guard of the first unit.

An even more important development than a Kevin Love Hulkout was Earl Joseph Smith III getting his schwerve back: 5-7 from deep and 20 points overall. His jumper looked sooo much better. It was desperately needed. The Cavs don’t really have a fallback if he’s not playing well.

After nine turnovers in the first half, Cleveland finished with just 12 while forcing the Bucks into 17, including eight from the Freak. Yes, he finished with 40 on 16-21 shooting, but at least the effort was there defensively. Now Cleveland has to fix the execution errors.

Meh.

Derrick Rose is really frustrating. He put up some weak *** **** around the basket that got swatted to Lakewood by the Bucks. dRose had a couple nice non-swatted finishes, but you figure a nine year vet would be smart enough to not go one on three or four consistently. In his defense, he got thrown the ball in bad positions a couple times, but he doesn’t seem to be great at putting himself into good positions. Rose also, on multiple occasions, ignored the flames coming out of Love’s fingertips and the blinking neon sign over Kev’s that said, “Get this guy the ball.” Derrick is also abysmal at finding shooters on the drive, though. The Cavs didn’t exactly put a lot of shooters around him either, but yeah. Four turnovers. Still, I saw some effort from dRose breaking up some transition plays and in some scramble situations. And yes, he did finish with 10 points. I suppose we’re living with him till at least December.

Jae Crowder on an island against Giannis is a really tough ask. Cleveland missed TT in this one. Another long defender would’ve helpful. Crowder is still struggling. Ty Lue should be picking IT’s brain for some of the action that worked for Jae in Boston to get him going. Crowder was a very efficient player last year, but just 1-5 for five points, tonight.

Yes, Iman Shumpert was 3-3 for six points and five rebounds in 19 minutes. Not bad. He seemed in control, and didn’t dominate the ball. I fear this is only because he was returning from injury. Shump was also just as culpable in the collective defensive breakdowns late. If he plays like this, in control, every game, I’ll be happy. I’ll still have nightmares about him dribbling though. He’s my Babadook.

Ugh.

The Cavs aren’t taking and making enough corner threes. Cleveland went 3-5 from the corners versus 6-7 for the bucks. That’s a nine point swing. Yes, Cleveland outshot Milwaukee from outside, but setting up corner threes for Crowder, Wade, Rose, Love, and J.R. should be staples of this offense.

I was full on drinking the Hatorade earlier, but a healthy Bledsoe will really help Milwaukee. He’ll take the scoring load off of Giannis a little, and I imagine he’ll be in every second that the Freak is on the bench. Plus Eric can attack off the dribble, which will help break down defenses for the shooters. Brogdon is a solid guard, and if they combine him with Bledsoe, it will make them that much better. Delly’s going to see his minutes drop. They’re still not better than the Cavs though.

Winning while the other team shoots 57% is not sustainable. Cleveland has to be better at recovering to shooters, and has to find a way to get stops inside without committing three people. They need to look at taking more charges. They stink at it. They’re never going to be a shotblocking force (Dwyane Wade be damned), but learning how to take charges and stop drives could at least help them around the rim a bit. Of course, you have to be back on defense to take charges.

The Cavs also stink at smart fouls. It’s not that they regularly take dumb fouls. I mean they won tonight because the Bucks took an inordinate amount of dumb fouls. But the Cavs don’t take fouls to stop breaks or layups. They just don’t. I couldn’t tell you why.

Biggest ugh? I didn’t start Giannis in my fantasy league. I was just too busy to set my lineups this week. In the words of an infamous commenter, I suck. It probably lost me my matchup this week. Who wants to take over my team?

—

Cleveland takes on the Rockets Thursday, and I expect them to show well (though Harden will score 1000), but take the Mavs and the points for Saturday’s game in Dallas.