Recap: Bucks 112, Cavs 104 (or, Slugfest in Milwaukee)

Meeting the reigning NBA champs in Milwaukee on the second night of a back-to-back, the Cleveland Cavaliers managed to mount a sustained challenge to the Bucks, overcoming fatigue to make it an entertaining and tight spectacle down the stretch. While Jrue Holliday and Giannis Antetokounmpo ultimately put them away, the Cavs added to their stock with a second consecutive game in which they posed a credible threat to the association’s elite.

Lauri Markkanen had one of his best games as a Cavalier, and Jarrett Allen again led the Cavs in scoring, notching 25 points on 10-12 shooting from the field, 5-5 from the line. Mobley and Rubio had sub-par games but still made a good impact. J.B. pulled Isaac Okoro in the second half in favor of Lamar Stevens, and Lamar went 2-4 from three, matching Okoro with two steals and appropriate mass and menace in the lane to add to Cleveland’s defensive effort. Cedi Osman and Kevin Love again keyed the Cavs comeback in the early 4th quarter, but the magnificence faded as Love watched down the stretch from the bench and Cedi missed his final three triple attempts.

First Quarter 

The Cavs came out ice cold, missing their first seven or eight attempts. They looked gassed from the Utah game, or just the general emotional heaviness of being in Milwaukee. Giannis set the tone with a massive block on Okoro.

Lauri Markkanen was the notable exception among the starting unit, looking feisty and focused, shooting with confidence and closing out on Milwaukee’s perimeter shooters. Jarrett Allen unveiled yet more new moves — did anyone know he had the Eurostep in his bag of tricks? — but picked up a couple of personal fouls early, which may have been the only reason he ended up with “only” nine rebounds on the game as he continued his consistently excellent performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh7DdlCXOEk

The Cavs finally woke up offensively about halfway through the quarter. Dawn arrives with DeMarcus Cousins, apparently. Coach Bud used Milwaukee’s newly-signed backup big for about five minutes per quarter, spelling Giannis and at times pairing up with reformed pugilist Bobby Porter, Jr. (Milwaukee’s MVP was returning from an injury and limited to 28 minutes of action — which is a bit like saying Godzilla was “limited” in his attacks on cities other than Tokyo.)

The Cousins-Mobley game-within-a-game was fascinating and a little surreal. Austin Carr enjoined Mobley from the sidelines: “The rookie has got to realize he [Cousins] can’t jump anymore!”, adding that “He [Cousins] is a physical guy, because he can’t jump anymore, so he’s going to try to horse you every time he gets a chance.”

The duel of the second units had some real throwback energy, with journeymen in green like Cousins and Wes Matthews in the green jerseys getting outplayed by their more handsome (and handsomely paid) counterparts. Kevin Love splashed two threes to open up Cleveland’s attack, and his comrade Ricky Rubio continued his pass artistry.

Of the youth movement in the first quarter, the most notable was for once not Darius Garland, who racked up 4 assists and went scoreless, but instead the Bucks’ rookie Javonte Smart. Smart infused energy and got cooking with a Eurostep bucket as the quarter wound down; he ended the game on a neat 3-3 from the field. Undrafted in 2021, Smart played some summer league for Miami, and before signing a two-way contract with the Bucks was playing for Sioux Falls in the G-League.  This was his second NBA game.

Second Quarter

The Cavs managed to score 26 points in this quarter, but again started off out of joint on offense. The discombobulation was probably best represented by Isaac Okoro clanking a mid-ranger that didn’t dent his abysmal shooting percentage since it was a 24-second violation anyway. (Okoro ended the night with far and away the worst plus/minus of any of the Cavs with a -20.)

It’s ironic the offense is better and defense is worse when he’s on but when he’s off they are better on defense but worse on offense. https://t.co/d2hB23xpgI

— Cavs:TheBlog (@CavsTheTweets) December 7, 2021

Darius failed to give Mobley an entry past in the post even when the rookie big man was requesting it on a smaller defender. The Bucks accordingly started the quarter on a 7-0 run, only stemmed by a Jarrett Allen block.

Kevin Love was a bit like the official Chinese state verdict on Chairman Mao in this game — nearly all good, only a few minor flaws. He had a great long outlet pass to Cedi and stretched the floor but let Portis get behind him for an easy bucket on a leakout. Love ended the game with an unusual stat line, going 5-11 from three, with three assists and four rebounds in his now-standard 19 minutes of action, all of them impactful.

Giannis started his inexorable leverage on the game’s outcome, backing down Markkanen in a glacial set of moves that attracted a double from Kevin Love, then saw the opportunistic Okoro ripping out the ball and putting it on the floor. Outstanding team defense, worthy of some film session praise, but because Giannis is Giannis he still managed to rip the ball upwards and put it in the hoop for his first points of the game.

Now the Giannis-Mobley game-within-a-game commenced in earnest — certainly in itself worth a deep dive in the growing archive of Mobley’s development. Giannis (swish) and Mobley (clank) traded 3 point attempts guarding one another. DeMarcus Cousins added to the mix by spinning around Mobley and dunking.

Upon reflection it might have been nice to have some minutes in this game from the injured Dean Wade. Both Ben Werth (who did it first) and Zach Lowe have praised the Cavs strength coaches for their work with the Kansas State product, but he was off the floor. Fortunately Lauri Markkanen was there to absorb the slack, not only on defense but on the offensive end. The one-time Arizona Wildcat went on his own mini-run, reeling off five points and keeping the Cavs within a respectable margin at the half.

Third Quarter

If I may provide a bit of free material to NBA.com’s highlight poet-in-residence, Darius Garland came out in the third shifty and nifty, and wasn’t thrifty with his fantastic passes; Javonte Smart was taking classes. The whistles started blowing, and Allen showing resistance to the “Greek Freak” but cheaply whistled again for an early foul. In spite of the briefly dissonant verdict on Allen’s D, the Greek big man was largely bottled up, only having notched 8 points at halftime.

As the Bucks threatened to break the game open with a margin widening out to 63-52, J.B. called a crucial timeout. His only adjustment was to pull Isaac Okoro from the rotation and replace him with Lamar Stevens. While Stevens would turn the ball over on his first possession, J.B.’s move did not disappoint. The defense picked up, and Stevens provided a bonus by splashing two threes from the left corner. Lamar eagerly tangled with Portis (at one point simply taking the ball away with a forearm rip) and Cousins; his moving of bodies around to make room for Darius drives put an imprint on the game.

Love and Markkanen had some excellent stretches. The Finnish forward had a stretch where he was literally everywhere on the floor, getting blocked and fighting back, protecting the rim, and again closing out on shooters. The results weren’t always perfect but the effort was exemplary. Kevin Love came in with some stout defense on Cousins.

The Cavs made a nice run in the latter half of the quarter to close the gap to five, with Markkanen, Love, and Rubio all splashing threes, but the Bucks fought back (again a timely bucket by the previously-unknown Smart) and the margin was 10.

Fourth Quarter

Macedonian thunder began to rumble and Cedi Osman erupted with a series of steals, transition baskets, and a timely three. Largely thanks to Cedi, the Cavs started the quarter on a 7-0 run. With a Kevin Love interior pass to Jarrett Allen, Cleveland pushed the score to Cavs 87, Bucks 88, and the Cavs were in a position to take the lead.

The last ten minutes of the game were both a slugfest and a chess match. Giannis woke up fully and got the benefit of some questionable calls. Cedi’s shot suddenly disappeared — while Jrue Holliday’s re-arrival on the court made a big difference in Milwaukee’s defense, Cedi’s three last looks from distance were more or less wide open. Giannis, Connaughton, and Holliday, on the other hand, were dropping in threes.

Markkanen again stepped up, sinking a three and running the floor for a lay-in off of a complaining and irritable Khris Middleton basket. The pace was frenetic in the middle of the quarter, until Cousins came back in to reestablish the sludge. J.B.’s regular countermove was to take Love out of the game for the homestretch and put in Mobley.

The Cavs cold shooting and dead legs caught up with them. Giannis hit a walk-up three with about 1:10 to go, and Milwaukee had finally pulled away conclusively.

It was a fine effort again from the Cavaliers, and fans can look forward to a rematch of these two teams in Cleveland on December 19.

Following the @Bucks 112-104 win over the Cavs, @Giannis_An34 provided some sage advice during the ASL postgame with a question from @eric_nehm about dealing with adversity, playing smart, playing as a team & controlling what you can control (especially against three 7 footers). pic.twitter.com/Ig0VylD7oF

— Brice Christianson (@InterpretedByBC) December 7, 2021

Randoms

• The Cavs were 39% from the field but an incredible 19-20 from the line. Jarrett Allen’s free throw stroke has been outstanding of late. Markkanen is still not getting many whistles on his drives in the paint, but went 2-2 from the line.
• Will Lamar Stevens continue to hit threes and soak up more of Okoro’s minutes? Nothing is more boring than a fake trade, but there have got to be teams in the league watching both Stevens and Okoro with interest.
• Dean Wade was missed in this game. Both Ben Werth (early to the party) and Zach Lowe (a more recent arrival to the Dean Wade discourse) have observed that Wade’s strength and lateral movement make him a valuable defender. He can also shoot threes. I haven’t seen the data or studied film of how he matches up with Bobby Portis, Jr., or if he has had the pleasure of getting acquainted or grunting at DeMarcus Cousins.
• Should any evidence that Kevin Love is a rebounding genius, on a crucial possession in the final two minutes Giannis put up a three-point attempt that rattled out and up and bounced and bounced and finally went in. Love was on the bench and gestured a full half-second before anyone else his frustration that the ball was, in fact, going in — and it did.
• Evan Mobley has sufficient length that he can collect the ball well outside a more normal radius when in the post. The combination of Rubio, Garland, and occasionally Allen and Love’s passing creativity with Mobley’s reach means that the Cavs have a wide scope of latitude, whether for more inside-out basketball or for more Mobley interior moves. He’s going up against the best of the best and holding his own.
• Mobley set a back screen for a Darius Garland running across the baseline for a three-point attempt — this succeeded in getting Jrue Holliday out of the Cleveland point guard’s shirt, and an open look at a three. More, please. With Rubio in, Garland can be successful off the ball also, and give defenses a different look.
• Darius Garland’s shooting performance in this game was not ideal — 3-12 from the field, for 10 points, with only three triples attempted, but a couple of his misses were effectively just getting the ball on the backboard for Mobley or Allen to put back. He has an ability to not just create out of double teams but split them and get into the paint.

• Khris Middleton did not go off in this game, but he did have his moments, particularly with his fadeaway jumper. Denzel Valentine has other drawbacks as a player, but his defense on Jason Tatum’s fadeaway was exemplary, and if J.B. is looking for ways to slow up opposing scorers, is Valentine an option for a few minutes here or there, or still a “break glass in the case of emergency” kind of player?
• Former Cav Rodney Hood played in this game for the Bucks, guarding Mobley on a couple of possessions. Quel surprise! He’s on a one-year veterans minimum with Milwaukee. As dedicated readers will know, Hood was traded from Cleveland in February 2019 to Portland, and was since shipped to Toronto as part of the Norman Powell / Gary Trent, Jr. trade. Toronto waived him this past August.
• Dylan Windler is doing a stint in the G League. Buried somewhere inside of a bewildering farrago of pop-up windows on the Forbes website, Chris Manning has an article about it.
• Last season’s backup guard Damyeon Dotson is currently playing for the Spurs G-League team in Austin, TX, and getting minutes against teams like Mexico City. When injured, Dotson had a habit of wearing 80s-heavy metal themed sweatshirts, and Dean Wade seems to have carried this tradition forward. Against Utah, Wade sported a “Def Leppard” sweatshirt, and in Milwaukee, a “Metallica” skull could be seen. The Cavs are going to need a little bit of that edge in their upcoming game against Chicago.