Recap: Milwaukee 117, Cleveland 102 (or, Good Vs. Great)

Slotting right in at third place in the Eastern Conference and riding a four game win streak, the Cavs are a good team. Unfortunately, they went up against a great team, Friday, the Milwaukee Bucks. The Deer feature the NBA’s most physically dominant player since Shaquille O’Neal was in his prime (and, yes, I’m including LeBron). After posting a solid first half that saw the Cavs up as much as 16, Giannis Antetokounmpo cashed in a power up at halftime, held down the turbo button whenever he had the ball in the second half, and annihilated Cleveland with a 43-10 run, across 14 minutes and all of the third quarter.

Much of Giannis’ success was due to a tough luck injury to Jarrett Allen in the first quarter. JA bit on a pump fake by Giannis and then Allen got low-bridged by the Greek Freak when he was in the air, causing Jarrett to take a nasty spill, land on his front-side, and then act as a landing pad for Giannis’ crash to the ground. Allen would re-appear briefly to start the second half before exiting the game entirely with a hip injury. After that, the Cavs were forced to try a combination of Brook Lopez (too slow) and Dean Wade (not big/strong enough) to guard Giannis and the results were predictable. Antetokounmpo notched 38/9/6 on 20 shots from the field and 11-14 at the line.

Giannis was epic. He’s just as unstoppable a player as exists in the NBA. Iyou make one mistake guarding him, he makes you pay. He can get to the basket with two strides from the three point line, and when he’s at full speed, it’s terrifying to take a charge from him, and he’s still agile enough to avoid you. Oh yeah, he can also shoot the three now. When engaged (as he was in the second half), he can impact every offensive and defensive possession and play any position on the floor. I’m happy for a city like Milwaukee that they’ve been able to root for him since he was a rookie and watch him grow as a person and basketball player. Playing against him sucks though :p.

It didn’t help that Cleveland that their offense went pretty anemic in the third (caused by a viciously active Milwaukee Defense), leading to multiple open-court opportunities for the man I call The Alphabet. It wasn’t rebounding. It wasn’t turnovers. Cleveland went cold because of a brutally effective defensive adjustment that teams are going to copy against the Cavs. Milwaukee played drop coverage on the pick and roll, went over every screen, and dared the Cavs to come into a packed paint or score from the mid-range. With no Kevin Love, and no real big man pick-and-pop threats, Cleveland was forced to drive inside and get their garbage whacked by the Milwaukee garbage swatters.

The Bucks finished with nine blocks, six for Brook Lopez, and a pair for Giannis. Poor Evan Mobley was a victim of many of those blocks, as the Bucks were setting their watches by Evan’s post-up timing, and knew exactly when he was going to shoot, sending those shots anywhere but the in basket. Evan was so spooked, that even when he did manage to get one off it looked like me trying to hit the recycling bin with the beer can at the end of a six pack. Mobley was 2-12 from the field to finish with 8/8/0 and three steals on the night.

With Stevens being out, the Cavs started Dean Wade, and while Wade held his own at times, asking him to score and guard an MVP level superfreak for the entirety of 24 second possessions was a Sisyphean task. Wade worked, especially when filling in as a big man, but despite grabbing a dozen rebounds, the Cavs needed more than seven points from Jimmy Dean. Still, 7/12/2 with a pair of stocks is a solid effort.

When Wade wasn’t pushing the stone up the hill, Robin Lopez was tasked with it, and was just too slow to do much other than hard foul. One of those hard fouls was a flagrant on Jordan Nwora, and that five point possession didn’t exactly help end the Bucks third quarter run. The Cavs were so flummoxed that they went small in the fourth quarter, running a lineup with Dean Wade at center, and Garland, Mitchell, Okoro, and Osman, just to get some shooting on the floor.

I can’t say I hated the decision, but the non-Mitchell/Osman Cavs couldn’t hit enough open Js to make it work. Mobley, Garland, Okoro, and Wade combined to go 4-16. As if he was saying “I’m right here, coach,” Mimadi Diakite hit a pull-up three off a RoLo dribble handoff right after checking in for garbage time at the game’s end.

To argue with the folks who say, “You can’t put an off-the-street free agent up against the best team in the NBA,” Javon Carter was signed by Milwaukee in February of last year, then put up an 18 point, eight assist night by April first. At 27, Javon’s starting now, and this game? Carter was the best Buck not named Giannis: 18 points, and 5-6 from deep, +18. Carter’s currently 60th in the Association in estimated plus minus, so don’t tell me later career unrestricted free agents can’t make a difference.

Yeah, with Giannis at full command of his powers, and surrounded by guys that complement him (shooters, and shotblockers), the Cavs just aren’t a match for this squad without Jarrett Allen and Kevin Love. What’s truly scary about this Bucks team? They’re still missing Khris Middleton and Pat Connaughton. I didn’t think Garland and Mitchell played poorly, they were just out-schemed, and out-matched physically. Without bigs who can stretch the defense, when Milwaukee turned up the defensive pressure in the chase and drop scheme, it was too difficult to overcome, especially for Darius Garland.

After a solid first half against a Bucks team in third gear, DG shot 1-8 from the field in the second half, and needs to practice coming off the screen harder to the side, instead of always going forward to the basket or mid-range or pulling up. Several times against the trail and drop scheme, if Garland had dribbled harder to the side and stayed behind the three point line, he’d have had a much more open jump shot and would have helped the pick and roll spacing a lot more. That’s one way for a good-shooting ball handler to defeat drop coverage, especially with an empty strong side corner. Garland finished with 20/4/3 on 7-18 shots and a game low -26.

The other thing that compounded their lack of shooting bigs, was the Cavs poor or nonexistent secondary actions, and off-ball screening to free up shooters on the weak side. Giving the defense something else to deal with instead of just stashing guys in the corner and weak-side wing would have helped to keep the entire D from swarming the point of attack. Even though it ended in a miss, this look, where Mitchell cuts to the top of the circle and uses a Mobley screen was indicative of the kinds of things the Cavs need to do more often.

Mitchell was fine offensively, and honestly should’ve had more shots, as he was really the only Cav who could generate consistent offense in the second half. But Milwaukee didn’t make it easy, forcing Mitchell to hit tough pull-ups, in the mid-range or difficult threes. 29/3/1 on 24 shots and 5-11 from deep isn’t terrible. Was Donovan’s defense meh? I don’t know. He got lost a couple times in the second half, but the Cavs just had no answer Giannis without Allen.

If Cleveland is serious about the playoffs, they’re going to have to figure out another long defender to throw at the Freak, and Allen is going to have to be headier about how he plays Giannis. Allen picked up a couple fouls early, and has to stop biting on every pump fake, which is what got him hurt. The undercut was borderline dirty from Giannis, but JA’s gotta be smarter. Allen’s just too valuable to take himself out of the game, and needs to concede baskets or shot attempts he has no chance at blocking instead of picking up cheap fouls.

There was another bright spot this game, Isaac Okoro had another solid outing, defended well, actually rebounded, and ran the floor. Okoro shot 6-6 at the line and finished with 13/4/1. He even handled the ball some at the two. Of the players who played over 15 minutes, Okoro led the Cavs in plus minus at +3. Osman was ok, but was frequently outmatched physically by the Bucks, since the Cavs played Cedi at power forward in the fourth.

A lot of folks were wringing their hands and cursing J.B. Bickerstaff about this loss, but honestly, it was just youth vs experience. Giannis even hinted at this when talking about Evan Mobley in an interview with Chris Fedor after the game.

I didn’t average what he is in my second season, so he’s already ahead of me… It’s in his hands. If he stays humble, continues to work hard, focuses on the game and shows love to the game of basketball, he is going to be really good.

But there’s no way to shortcut the process. One of the things that helped Giannis is that he didn’t have the expectations of being a third overall pick, and could develop in relative obscurity before turning it on in his third year, and exploding in productivity his fourth and fifth. But Giannis’ work ethic was off the charts, especially when it came to transforming his body and becoming an absolutely world class athlete. The Cavs are still ramping up with Mobley, Garland, and Okoro, and just have to let them grow. Getting your ass kicked is a part of that process.

Every time you move up a tier in the NBA, you have to take your lumps and learn from them before you can compete consistently against the best of that level. With Connaughton, Middleton, and Robert Williams III still out, it’s easy to see the Cavs are definitely still in a class below the Bucks and Celtics at the top of the east. That’s ok. The wine and gold just need to get stronger and play smarter. Get in the weight room, guys, watch the tape, and let the protein powder flow.