Cleveland, Ohio - The Cavs remain undefeated after beating the Milwaukee Bucks 116-114. The last time the Cavaliers started 8-0 was the 1976-77 team who finished the season at 43-39.
The Cavs hosted the Milwaukee Bucks for the 2nd half of the home/road matchup. The Cavs were shorthanded without Dean Wade (illness) and Caris LeVert (knee soreness) and for the Bucks they were without Giannis Antetokounmpo who injured himself in their last matchup.
The Cavs started the 1st quarter on fire. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell combined for 25 of their eventual 35 1st quarter points. The Cavs and led by as much as 12 after a pair of Darius Garland free throws halfway through the period and that’s when the Bucks went on a 14-6 run to cut the lead to 28-24.
Little known Milwaukee Buck AJ Green eventually hit a 3 off a pass from Damian Lillard to give the Bucks their first lead of the game. From there the Cavs ended the quarter with a quick five points flurry initiated by a Mitchell 3. Then the Cavs pressured Lillard in the backcourt, causing him to lose the ball while Ty Jerome cruised for an easy layup to give the Cavs a 35-31 lead entering the 2nd period.
The Cavs offense again allowed them to jump on top of the Bucks. The hometeam went on a 13-4 run to start and led 48-35. However the Bucks behind Lillard’s 17 2nd quarter points the Bucks would rally back to cut the lead to 6. AJ Green for the Bucks was their unsung hero of the half. He made timely shots that didn’t let the Cavs runway with the game as he score 12 points all behiind the 3 point line.
With the score at 48- 42 the Cavs pushed their lead to 19 after behind Evan Mobley’s 10 points including one made 3-pointer and 2 blocked shots.
In pregame media availability Coach Kenny Atkinson expressed whether you call him a wing or a big, he’s a hard guard in the league.
“When you look at bigs in this league, it's evolved. Where your traditional big, you're just putting them down on the block or playing him in pick and roll all the time. [Evan] is more of a hybrid, kind of a wing, wing big is that? Is that possible? Because he's handled the ball a lot more. So, to me, that means you [have] wing characteristics. And I think it's a good thing when you play wing. You can go inside, and he can play pick and roll too. He can roll without it, and he can also handle it. So that's a lot of things in his bag, So you want to call [Evan} a big slash wing or wing slash big. I think he fits that category, which is a really hard guard in this league.”
However the Bucks didn’t quit, as Lillard scored the Bucks last 7 points in the quarter to cut the lead to 13 heading into halftime.
The 3rd quarter saw the Cavs relinquish the lead for the only the 2nd time of the game. Before the game Coach Atkinson expressed his team could improve on their offensive rebounding.
“We’re not offensive rebounding at the level I thought we could or should. Although I thought the end of the Milwaukee game (Saturday night), Isaac got a big one. Dean got a big one. We're 25th or something in the league. Can we get more [to the] middle of the pack? I'm not saying we're going to be one or two in the league, but I definitely think we could do better there”
Rebounding in general was an issue for the Cavs tonight. In the 3rd quarter along the Cavs were outrebounded 14-9 and 35-26 up to that point of the game. The Cavs defense also left alot to be desired as they allowed the Bucks to shoot 52% from the floor while they also commiteed 4 turnovers that resulted in 8 Bucks points.
The Cavs offense also went cold after halftime, in the frst half the wine and gold shot 61% from the floor and 66% from the behind the arc. In the 3rd quarter the Cavs show 30% from the floor and 36% from 3-point land.
After answering a number of 3’s from Lillard the Cavs couldn’t keep up and the Bucks cut the lead to 10 and would take the lead after 3-pointers from Brook Lopez and Andre Jackson Jr.
The Bucks entered the 4th quarter with a 91-89. The Cavs got off to a slow start not scoring for nearly 2 and a half minutes. After the Cavs tied the game at 92 the Bucks scored 7 straight points prompting Coach Atkinson to call a timeout with a little over 8 minutes to go.
The Cavs went down as much as 8 points with nearly 6 minutes left in regulation and the end of the game turned into Garland vs Lillard duel. After Evan Mobley converted an and 1 opportunity to make a 2 point deficit, Garland hit a floater over Brook Lopez to give the Cavs a 108-106 lead.
Lillard would answer with a mid range jumper to tie the game. Lillard then hit a step back 3 over Garland to give the Bucks the lead. Garland answered back make layup high off the glass to bring the Cavs within one point. The Cavs defense showed up big causng Lillard comitt a backcourt violation.
Coach Atkinson postgame said that it was just a feeling he had, and that it wasn’t the original plan.
“That was a feel thing. I just saw it and I just told Donovan to go and it worked out. Looking back, we probably should have done it earlier. But we blitzed to start the game and they torched us. They came out and they started spraying around. The other guys were hitting threes and it's weird because Dame [isn’t] scoring. But now the other guys are getting wide open shots, so you you're always playing that game. But we didn't do it that at at the time out. We didn't call that blitz. I just felt it. just told them to go and, that was a good play on our part.”
On the next possession Garland guarded by AJ Green nailed a 3 to give the Cavs a 113-11 lead. In the final moments of the game Jarrett Allen block Damian Lillard on a drive to the basket and the Cavs went on to defeat the Bucks in back to back games 116-114.
Coach Atkinson applauded his guys postgame, stating its games like this that prepare you for pressure moments in the playoffs.
“The last five minutes, clutch minutes, how we're gonna execute, how are we gonna finish this game? There was no panic, but these are great if you want to succeed in the playoffs you got to be really good in in the pressure moments. I like that we got pressure, pressure situations. We practiced it and fortunately came out on top.”
Mithhell in his postgame availability, like that the Cavs have to had to find different ways to win this season so far.
“For us, we’ve played well, but continue to build our habits. We've won in so many different ways, and I think that's what's truly most impressive to me than the 8 wins as a whole. It’s how we're winning. We’ve had blowouts, we've had post games, [games] climbing back, so I like how are we doing it. Every night it’s somebody different, every night it's like a group effort continuously, and I think that's what really stands out.”
The man of the night Darius Garland finished with 39 points 8 assists and only 2 turnovers pointed to the the camaraderie they have with each other is what has propelled them to an 8-0 start.
“I think it's our camaraderie. We’re all just locked in. We've been around each other for a couple years now, so we know what to expect from everybody. Then just taking accountability. I think that's another thing that we've definitely increased over the years. When somebody's down, we got to pick them up. Somebody do something wrong, we have to tell them so we can fix it for the next possession. It doesn't matter who you are, if you're a rookie, if you've been here six, seven years, we hold everybody accountable, from the coaching staff to trainers, so it's super good to see that in the organization, around in the facility as well. Have to keep that going and just stay locked in together.”
The Cavs improve to 8-0 and will take on the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday November 5th.