Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 119-110 win over Cleveland Cavaliers

King of the Hill

His return to action after missing the last two games was overshadowed upon entering the night, but veteran George Hill showed us all what the Bucks were missing, especially when emergency came calling over the second half.

Hill took a backseat in bench lineups as All-Star swingman Khris Middleton continues to come off the bench and orchestrated such configurations when Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer turned to his bench unit. Eventually, though, Hill worked in tandem with Middleton to dissect the Cavaliers’ lackadaisical defending and the 33-year-old got to the heart of Cleveland’s defense to put down some easy finishes as well as a couple of triples over the first half.

And it was Hill who answered the call for the Bucks as the Cavaliers ramped up their comeback effort late in the third quarter, as Hill put down a personal 8-0 run by connecting on his third and fourth three-pointers, and put down another finish to keep the Bucks above water. Additionally, Hill’s four treys equaled one-third of the Bucks’ 12 three-pointers for the night.

That led to Hill closing out the game in place of starting point guard Eric Bledsoe for the closing stretch and he was vital on the defensive end to cut off the Cavaliers’ final push before hitting the free throw line for those aforementioned pair of free throws with 13 seconds to go in regulation.

All in all, Hill finished with 18 points on 10 shots (4-for-6 from three, 2-of-2 from the foul line), four assists, two rebounds, zero turnovers and was a +9 in over 22 minutes of action. And Hill’s 18 points contributed to the 51 bench points, with Ersan Ilyasova and Middleton also scoring in double figures from the bench mob.

The Bucks will head back home to host the Charlotte Hornets for a Saturday night showdown that will tip off at 7pm central time.