Bucks vs. Cavaliers: “Spida” rips out Milwaukee’s heart

Big games from Giannis and Dame aren’t enough as Mitchell scores with 0.3 on the clock

The Milwaukee Bucks had a potential second victory of the season snatched away at the last-second by Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers, losing their fifth straight by a final score of 114-113. Damian Lillard rebounded in a big way after his rough performance in Memphis on Thursday, going off for 41 points, nine assists, and four rebounds. Giannis Anteteokounmpo nearly had a triple-double with 34 points, 16 rebounds, and nine assists. Donovan Mitchell led the charge for the Cavaliers with 30 points, while former Buck Sam Merrill popped off for 17 points off the bench. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.

What Did We Learn?

There is so much to unpack from this loss but the main takeaway should be that this team needs Khris Middleton in the worst way possible. The top-heavy nature of this roster makes it necessary for everyone to be healthy, otherwise it falls. The offense is so dependent on Giannis and Dame to carry it that it drops off hard when both of them are off the floor. Of the 113 points the Bucks scored last night, Giannis, Dame, and Taurean Prince had 91 of them. The other six players who played combined for 22 points on 9-for-31 shooting from the field (29%).

“We just gotta go out there and do it, together though. I don’t think one guy will do it or two guys will do it, I think within the whole team everybody has to come together and do it,” Antetokounmpo said. “Tonight we had 75 points combined (between) me and Dame, it’s not enough. Against Boston, we scored 65 points, it’s not enough. We got to come all together, we got to trust one another.”

There were stretches where the offense needed a guy like Middleton to steady the ship and manage possessions. Delon Wright and Andre Jackson Jr are solid defenders who can handle the ball, but they don’t have the kinds of offensive skill sets needed to lead the second unit in important situations. A timely Middleton mid-range in the late third or mid-fourth quarter could have been the difference from a 1-5 start and a 2-4 start.

Giannis and Dame Things

I don’t want this entire recap to be negative because there were some spectacular moments between Lillard and Giannis that I don’t want to unnoticed.

The play that everyone is going to talk about today is fully deserved.

After the Bucks had stormed out to their 17-point lead in the first quarter, it slowly crumbled throughout the second quarter. The Cavaliers eventually took a six-point lead with 1:31 left to play until Giannis and Dame turned it around. It was capped off by this head-turning play, where Giannis drove to the paint, got doubled by Mitchell and Allen, and threw a no-look behind the back pass to a wide-open Lillard who gave the Bucks a one-point lead heading into the locker room. The supporting cast may have some issues right now without Middleton, but the duo of Giannis and Dame fired on all cylinders.

The two-man game between Giannis and Dame is something to behold.

There were several instances where Giannis and Dame ran a perfect pick-and-roll (PNR), where Dame found Giannis on the roll for an easy layup. However, I wanted to take a look at this play during crunch time when the Bucks were down six with 7:29 to play. Giannis hands this ball off to Dame and immediately uses it as a screen to open himself up to be matched up with Georges Niang instead of Okoro or Mobley. Dame finds him immediately with a good pass and Giannis does the rest. While it may not be much, Dame knowing where to throw that pass so Giannis is the only one who can get it in that position is important and shows a clear sign of their growth together as a duo.

These are the types of plays these two have to convert.

As I mentioned previously, there were some beautiful plays between Giannis and Dame in the PNR and the setup of this one is no different. The two All-Stars find a way to generate enough space for Dame to throw a near-perfect bounce pass to Giannis, he just ends up missing the layup after Mobley recovers to contest the shot. I know that not every one of these plays is gonna end in two points, let alone one if there’s a foul, but despite the coverage from Mobley there is no reason for Giannis to miss this. In a game where you end up losing by just one point, plays like these add up and it’s part of the reason this team is 1-5 instead of where they are supposed to be.

Bonus Bucks Bits

• Damian Lillard passed Larry Bird to move into 48th place on the all-time career assist leaderboard, now with 5,696 in his career.
• While it didn’t win them the game, this was still an unbelievable shot from Lillard.

• Andre Jackson Jr had some solid moments on both ends of the court tonight, scoring three points and giving Mitchell trouble in spurts on the ball. He even limited himself to just three fouls tonight, which has been an issue throughout the season. Jackson Jr dropped a nugget postgame on something he learned from Rajon Rondo about how to keep the fouls in check:

“Rondo did tell me one thing, (that) every time I check into the game understanding the foul count and looking up at that board to see is somebody in the bonus, how many fouls do we have, how many fouls do they have,” Jackson said. “Trying to pick his brain while he is around, he’s a very smart guy and he was a champion. Just having guys like that around definitely helps a player like me.”

• Last night marked the sixth time in Lillard’s career that he’s made 10+ threes in a game and his first time doing so with the Bucks. His six career games with 10+ threes are the third-most by a player in NBA history behind Steph Curry (25) and Klay Thompson (9).
• Lillard and Antetokounmpo have now scored 30+ points in the same game twice this season, and 10 times overall as teammates. One of the league’s leading scoring duos last season, they’re just the second pair this season to have multiple games where they both reached the 30-point mark (The other being Toronto’s RJ Barrett and Gradey Dick).

Up Next

The Bucks will tango with the Cavaliers again on Monday from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. The game will start at 6:00 PM Central and will be broadcast on Fan Duel Sports Network and NBA TV.

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