CLEVELAND — The Milwaukee Bucks finished off a four-game road trip Friday night in Cleveland by defeating the Cavaliers 119-111 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
The Bucks went 3-1 on this trip, improving their score to 24-8 overall, while the Cavaliers fell to 18-14.
“It's been a tough, but rewarding journey,” Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said. “Especially during this time of the season where you can easily give up and go home and be satisfied with .500 basketball. But it's a great way for us to (end).”
Milwaukee rallied from a 15-point deficit in the first half and then withstood a furious fourth-quarter surge by the Cavaliers to clinch the win. Damian Lillard was a big part of that with 10 points in the final period. Lillard scored 24 of his 31 in the second half after getting into trouble in the first half, which limited him to just seven points.
During intermission, Griffin told Lillard, “If you start, we'll be OK.”
Malik Beasley knew he was going to have to go back to defense because Lillard was about to go out.
“I was angry, honestly,” Lillard said of the 13-minute, 26-second first half, which included just 86 seconds of play in the second quarter. “I still didn't want to come out of the game, but sometimes a coach has to save you from yourself. It's clear in my mind that I'm going to be careful, but you never know what could happen out there. I was very upset about the situation but I always tell you all ,
“I've been through this before, and as upset as I was it wasn't anything unusual. So I knew I would be fresh. I wasn't tired. I wasn't tired of the game yet. “It was a tough game and I knew I needed to come out and be strong and find a way To accomplish something. That was my mentality.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 34 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and made five assists, while Beasley scored 15 points and Khris Middleton added 13 points and 10 rebounds. They were the only bucks to reach double figures.
Cleveland led with Donovan Mitchell scoring 34 points, while Jarrett Allen scored 30 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Max Strus had 12 and Caleb Porter had 14 points off the bench in the losing effort.
Bucks win huge third quarter keys
Milwaukee found itself falling to 15th early, and looked somewhat listless at times toward the end of a road trip that began with a Dec. 22 departure for home. They turned the ball over a lot and allowed easy baskets around the rim.
Antetokounmpo admitted the first 24 minutes were tough and the Cavaliers didn't let things go the Bucks' way. But during the break, he said he feels good about it.
“We're going to play basketball tonight,” he told his team in the locker room. “That's a good game.”
At the beginning of the third quarter, the fire caught fire.
They started with a 12-2 run to turn a 59-52 halftime deficit into a 64-61 lead and they didn't stop there. They took better care of the ball and instead forced turnovers. They also moved the ball more sharply, dishing out eight assists to make 13 field goals.
They used another strong run midway through the quarter — a 15-2 spurt in which Lillard and Antetokounmpo combined for 12 points — to take a 15-point lead.
“We were able to start getting some stops and then that allowed us to transition a little bit better before setting up their defense,” Griffin said of the key quarter. “They played very tough. I thought they played very tough defense, and they were denying it. They were trying to deny Dame, and they were building walls for Giannis, making it difficult. I thought we stuck with it.”
The Bucks scored 40 points in this period to take a 92-80 lead into the fourth.
As for the big rally, despite being on the road for a week, Brook Lopez said he wasn't surprised the team didn't decide to pack its bags, at least mentally, early.
“This is not who we are,” he said. “We have guys in this team who have been through the league, we know the way the games go. We don't have guys who quit. That's now our DNA, no matter how cliched and trite we may say about it.”
Khris Middleton is making an impact through playmaking and defense
It's no coincidence that the Bucks' offense has reached another level since Dec. 7 when Middleton saw his minutes finally reach 30 on a regular basis. He entered Friday's game having scored 20 or more points in four of his last six, but he was also averaging seven assists. And that's where he made a big impact against the Cavaliers, dishing out 11 assists, a season-high.
“He can always play well,” Antetokounmpo said. “He's a great playmaker. He'll always make the right play. He can make tough passes. When Chris has the ball, you have a sense of security that he's going to make a good shot or find you for a layup or the ball in the pocket lane.”
“I've played with him for 11 years, so I kind of know when to go the distance, when to cut, when to go and set the screen for him, and maybe make it easy for him. But, he's a guy who's always going to do that.” I am looking for you.”
Middleton finished just short of his career high in assists, which was 12 at Denver on February 8, 2021.
Then on the defensive end, Middleton came up with three steals, also a season best. This resulted in six Bucks points. He finished the game with 13 points, including two free throws with 17.9 seconds left, as the Bucks won 117-111.
The Cavaliers are getting cold from the three-point line
Cleveland did not enter the game as one of the best three-point shooting teams in the league, ranking only 23rd.Research and development In the NBA, he made 35.4% of his threes on about 35 attempts.
However, over their last six games (5-1 record) they are averaging 46.3 per game and shooting 37.4%. The Bucks noted this change in their pregame scouting report.
“They played really good basketball and you can attribute that to the way they shot the three,” Griffin said. “They put guys in there that can really unleash it, so there was a big focus on how to protect the 3-point line.
“Number one was in transition. Sometimes transition defense is an area where we struggled, but I thought we did a pretty good job of coming back and not giving up too many threes in transition. And then the game plan was to figure out who the shooters were, be “Get physical with them, get them off the line or keep them down.”
The Bucks did just that, with the Cavaliers being particularly awful from long range on Friday. They started the game 1-for-9 and went 3-for-22 in the first half. Meanwhile, the Bucks were shooting the ball over 40% from range, which kept the team in the game while holding together defensively.
Ultimately, the Cavaliers' woes beyond the arc came to the third quarter where they shot just 13.3% (4-for-30) while the Bucks were 11-for-25 (44%). This difference helped the Bucks overturn a 15-point deficit in the first half to a 15-point lead late in the third period.
As time went on, the Cavaliers continued to make two-point baskets — but they couldn't get ahead like their counterparts due to their cold shooting touch.
And it was the dagger, in a bad way, with 1:26 left when the Bucks turned the ball over to make it 113-108 and Donovan Mitchell's three-point attempt rocked both inside and outside the court. It was the 34th missed triple of the night. Then Max Strus missed a 3-pointer with 22 seconds left, which could have cut the Bucks' lead to one point.
“I thought our players did a great job following the game plan,” Griffin said.
Cleveland scored 64 points in the paint but finished 6-for-43 (14%) from behind the three-point line. Meanwhile, the Bucks were 12-for-29 from beyond the arc.
Did you notice?
Early in the third quarter, Brook Lopez helped force a timeout for the Cavaliers by first blocking a Max Struss dunk attempt from one end and then from the other he pulled a cross on Cavaliers forward Isaac Okoro that sent him leaning forward, then fired a deft drop ball to Giannis Antetokounmpo. .
The game capped an 11-2 scoreline and not only gave the Bucks a 63-61 lead, it forced a timeout and resulted in Strus getting a technical foul as he walked off the court. Damian Lillard scored the free throw after the break to give the Bucks a 64-61 lead, their largest lead of the game to that point.
“It was a great play by Brock,” Antetokounmpo said. “That speaks volumes. He's so talented. I think they called a timeout and I was walking to the bench like this guy just passed the ball and threw me high into traffic? I was like, ssshh. He's so talented. He's talented, you know?”
Antetokounmpo also joked that Lopez should play point guard on offense, which made Lopez laugh.
“It just happened, I was playing basketball,” Lopez said with a smile. “It was just a read. You know, it just happened. He guarded the way he guarded and that's what happened.”
Then Bobby Portis got the sack later in the quarter with a great steal in the open court and then delivered a behind-the-back pass to Antetokounmpo to give the Bucks an 83-73 lead.
Five numbers
8 Games this season in which Brook Lopez has blocked at least five shots, a league high. Lopez hit six against the Cavaliers. He also set a season-high in rebounds with 10 points to go with nine points.
9 Times this season, Malik Beasley has made at least five or more 3-pointers in a game, and he is now tied with Brook Lopez (2018-19) for second most in a single season by a Bucks player. Ray Allen holds the club record with 12 goals in the 2001-02 season. BEASLEY: This is light work (Allen recorded). I'm going to get over it. The ball is moving. The ball is moving. When we don't play well… I'm not trying to be a professional player or anything like that, but if I don't make more than 4 threes the ball doesn't move. With Giannis, Khris and Dame, they'll be double-teamed, so if I stay in the corner and say 'present', I'll be good. I'm just thankful that we have a great team. It doesn't happen very often, and even if it did and these guys were doing what they were supposed to do, we would still get the win.
8-6 The Bucks have scored on the road to Fiserv Forum this season with a 3-1 win.
9-9 How Jarrett Allen started from the field, including an 8-for-8 mark in the first quarter for 16 points. Allen used that hot start to finish with 30 points on 15-of-17 shooting for Cleveland. But he scored 14 points on just nine shots the rest of the way. Antetokounmpo: First, he's tough to guard. He was hitting those mid-range shots and it was 7-1. He's huge and can shoot you anytime he wants. His touch has improved a lot. His touch around the rim is incredible. The first eight shots he took, he was basically hitting every shot, but I think after that he stopped being so aggressive. I don't think we did anything. You can not. If someone hits those mid-range shots and fires a bunch of hooks over you, there's nothing you can do to stop them. The only way you can stop is to ruin it. But I think the game is gone from him. Donovan Mitchell was a little more aggressive. Porter was a little more aggressive. (Max) Strauss was aggressive. So the game moved away from it a little bit. So, thank God, because He was making it all happen.
LOPEZ: That's not the identity of the Cavaliers or their makeup, you know, going into that. He was playing great, so it was tough. He was making it difficult for us. It was preventing him from hitting threes. They shoot a lot of threes. They shoot them very well. So, it was pretty much sticking to our defensive philosophy: tough duels. He played well throughout the game but I think it was clear that the focus was on our part, keeping him away from all the players who were collecting the ball from three-point range.
17-0 The Bucks score when they score 30 or more points in the first quarter.
Pax injury report
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, possible (management of right calf injury)
- Jae Crowder, out (left adductor surgery) Crowder had surgery on Nov. 14 and the initial prognosis was that he could return in about eight weeks. The eight-week mark is Jan. 9, which is a day off before the team returns to action at Fiserv Forum on Jan. 11 against Boston. Crowder started court work in late November and felt he was on track to return in January. On Friday, Bucks coach Adrian Griffin provided the following update: He's getting close, but still far (far from a comeback). But it's progressing beautifully. Again, he's another professional guy. He takes care of all the things he needs on and off the field, and is intensifying his training. I think he was doing some sprints earlier today so he's progressing beautifully. But I'm not sure what his exact timetable is when he returns.
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