Bucks vs. Cavaliers: The NBA Cup comedown 

Milwaukee loses big to Cleveland in lifeless performance

After the elation of winning the NBA Cup on Tuesday, the Milwaukee Bucks looked tired and old against the Cleveland Cavaliers last night, losing 124-101 without Damian Lillard, who missed with a calf strain. Giannis Antetokounmpo was below the standard he set for himself over the past month and somehow still had 33 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, and three steals. Khris Middleton also looked more like himself, finishing with 14 points and three assists. It was a very balanced attack from the Cavs, with six players scoring in double digits, but Donovan Mitchell starred with 27 points and six assists. 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?

This game was always going to be a slog and very difficult to win without Dame’s ability to get into the teeth of the defence. Having said that, I thought the attention to detail was very underwhelming. Maybe this was always going to be a loss, but the way the team went about it didn’t exactly inspire much confidence. The best teams don’t beat themselves, and it was evident that the Bucks weren’t all that committed to solving the puzzle Cleveland presented. Doc spoke about the lack of fight postgame:

“We were flat early. I actually contemplated not playing anyone in the second half, honestly. I just thought we were flat, tired, whatever you want to call it. It was a tough turnaround—we knew that. We’ve got to move the ball more. We didn’t run a lot of stuff tonight. We’ve got to get more organised. We don’t do that often, but we have games like that, and when that happens, we usually don’t win those games. And that was tonight.”

When asked if he learned anything about this game, Rivers answered, “there’s no barometer, there’s no read on tonight’s game, I’m just going to say that. We learned nothing.”

Three Things

When Dame is out, you can really tell.

It is nice that Khris can help with some of the playmaking and scoring that Dame leaves when he’s absent, but this team is really limited in those departments without Lillard. The Bucks rank 24^th in assist percentage in the NBA, which means they score mostly off individual creation. Luckily, the Bucks have two of the best creators in the game, so they can get by on that strategy. But when one of Lillard or Antetokounmpo is out… there aren’t many others who can make plays. And that was very evident last night with how often the offence was reduced to standing around. It is a weakness to monitor. How much can the front office do about it? Probably not a lot.

“Bucks role player Whac-A-Mole” was on full display.

It was evident that Andre Jackson Jr. was the best defender for either Donvan Mitchell or Darius Garland, and at the same time, this appears to be a really bad matchup for him on offence—like, among the worst AJax will run into. The Cavs just put Evan Mobley on Andre and let Mobley roam, basically betting that if Jackson wants to shoot from three, fine. If he wants to play in the dunker spot and challenge the Cavs’ twin towers at the rim, also fine. So Doc put Trent in, and he was at least a threat offensively, but he also couldn’t really limit either of those guards, especially Mitchell. This is where having a Herb Jones-type—a hybrid of these two players—would be such a helpful deadline addition. But until then, I like to call this game “Bucks role player Whac-A-Mole.”

Milwaukee only lost badly in one key area.

As I touched on in the rapid recap, the Bucks lost the three-point battle by 30 points last night, and that was the game. But they played Cleveland to a draw in many other key areas. Points in the paint: Bucks won 48-40. Second-chance points: Cavs won 9-12. Fast-break points: Bucks won 10-7. Maybe that’s a positive they leave with.

Bonus Bucks Bits

• Bobby had some downright embarrassing efforts on both ends last night. Chief among them, this sequence:

• In stark contrast to his last visit to Cleveland, AJ Green couldn’t get anything going, going 0/4 and a -20. Although, many players were around that plus/minus mark, to be fair.
• There was some worrying Ryan Rollins footage a few weeks back where it looked as if he didn’t want to use his left arm. During his fourth-quarter run last night, I didn’t notice any favouring of the right arm.
• The answer to the playmaking guard question, long term, might actually be AJ Johnson.
• The Cavs identifying Ty Jerome—and him turning out to be a real find—is what the Bucks need to replicate if they are to maximise their chances of contending in the future with minimal draft picks.
• At least former Buck Sam Merrill didn’t light Milwaukee up, finishing 1/5 from deep.

Up Next

The Bucks are back at home tonight against the Washington Wizards at 7:00 PM CST. Watch the game on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin.

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