The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers Friday night at Fiserv Forum for the second time in two tries, going back to their first matchup last Wednesday. Certainly some similarities in the two matchups like a hot start shooting for Cleveland, dominant second half defense and block parties by Brook Lopez.
The Milwaukee Bucks were down by 11 points at halftime and outscored the Cavaliers 35-10 in the third quarter and held Cleveland to just 39 points in the entire second half! In their first matchup, the Bucks held the Cavaliers to 18 points in the third and 20 points in the fourth for a total of just 38 points in the second half. Whatever adjustments Head Coach Mike Budenholzer made at halftime against this Cleveland team have paid dividends for the Bucks and created a nightmare for the Cavaliers.
Let’s look at three takeaways from this Milwaukee Bucks win:
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks win over Cleveland Cavaliers: Brook Lopez is hosting a block party
Brook Lopez as mentioned previously, has done very well defending the interior in the two matchups with the Cavaliers. In the first matchup last Wednesday, Brook recorded three blocks, in Friday night’s matchup he doubled that to six blocks, tying his season high. Interestingly, the other game he recorded six blocks in a game was against the Brooklyn Nets, another game where the Bucks trailed by double digits at halftime and came back to win.
Brook Lopez recorded two of his six blocks against budding star Evan Mobley and held the young power forward to just 1-of-5 shooting from the floor.
Brook didn’t score a ton but the shooting he did, he did efficiently. Brook made all three of his shot attempts, including two 3-pointers and finished with eight points and four rebounds to go with his six blocks.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks comeback win over Cleveland Cavaliers: Bucks have gotten solid, albeit inconsistent play from their guards
It seems that every night the Milwaukee Bucks get a solid scoring outburst from someone in the backcourt, at times it has been Jevon Carter, as was the case Friday night. Other times it has been Jrue Holiday or Grayson Allen, even George Hill got into double figures Wednesday night against the Bulls.
As mentioned, Friday night Jevon Carter was the guard that picked up the scoring for the Milwaukee Bucks backcourt. Carter was the second leading scorer on the team behind Giannis Antetokounmpo. Carter finished with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting including a scorching 83 percent on 5-of-6 3-point attempts. Carter added three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
George Hill and Wesley Matthews added five points each, both sinking a 3-pointer. Their stats don’t jump out of the box score and scream big contributions, but Wesley Matthews finished a team high +25 on the night, underscoring that scoring is not the only way to help your team.
Jrue Holiday and Grayson Allen combined for 17 points on just 6-of-21 shooting, the pair did combine for 10 assists which no doubt helped the Bucks earn the win but thankfully the starters were picked up heavily by Jevon Carter and modestly by the veteran role players.
What makes this group interesting is that they have all shown at some points that they can contribute to winning games, what becomes fun to picture is all five of these players hit at the same time, that will make the Milwaukee Bucks an absolute nightmare for opponents even before getting to the Bucks frontcourt.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks comeback win over Cleveland Cavaliers: Cleveland will have nightmares about Giannis Antetokounmpo
Giannis Antetokounmpo was quiet in the Milwaukee Bucks first game against the Cavs, scoring just 16 points. Giannis made abundantly clear that that game was not anything to do with the opponent. Giannis detonated for his third straight game of 36 or more points, finishing with 38 points on just 20 field goal attempts, 13 of which he made. Giannis was also a much more respectable 10-of-14 at the free throw line, an area he’s struggled mightily in over the last two weeks. Giannis also sunk two 3-pointers in three attempts, both in the second half, one of which he walked into and shot off the dribble with the confidence of Steph Curry.
Giannis was a matchup nightmare for everyone on the Cavaliers Friday night, Giannis made 8-of-9 field goal attempts while being guarded by Dean Wade, filling in for the absent Kevin Love, who may not have fared much better. The other primary defenders the Cavaliers tried to put on Giannis, Evan Mobley and Robin Lopez didn’t fare much better, Giannis shot a combined 7-of-12 while guarded by the pair of big men.
Giannis added nine rebounds, six assists and two steals to his final stat-line with just three turnovers, a refreshingly low tally on giveaways after piling up eight on Wednesday in a loss to the Chicago Bulls.
Stay tuned for more takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks games.