Recap: Cleveland 104, Milwaukee 99 (Or, The Division is Won)

The Cavs came away with the victory last night, and it was sloppy. They are now the Central Division Champions. I’m going to say it’s because they pulled off this gritty win, but even if they’d lost, they still would’ve had the division title won thanks to the Bulls falling to the Magic.

The Wine & Gold started the game getting the ball into the post, and then used that action to hoist open three-pointers. They followed that plan for much of the night, but they racked up an astonishing 18 turnovers trying new stuff. Whenever they moved away from this game plan, they had some trouble scoring. However, in an ironic twist, it was the ISO-play down the stretch that won the game for them. LeBron James hit a three-ball off the dribble to put the Cavs up five with 14 seconds left in the game. The Cavs needed that shot, since somehow they managed to squander a 15 point lead in the third quarter and entered the fourth up by just two points. Kyrie led the team with a 17 point second quarter. He ended the game with 27 points, nine assists and four rebounds.

First Quarter

The Bucks started out hot and made their first four shots, which were all jumpers. The Cavs missed their first two shots before going on to make their next five attempts. The King’s Men worked the ball into the post and back out to the three-line to get open looks this quarter.

Kevin Love had two wonderful post-ups. Early in the quarter, he caught a pass from Kyrie near the left baseline and nailed a turnaround jumper. A little later in the quarter, he recovered his own missed hook shot and flipped it back in for a score.

LeBron James grabbed nine points on 4-5 shooting during the first. He had two monster slams. On the first one, the King forced a wild pass to the Mozerati in the paint. The Mozerati almost stalled out, but he managed to stay idling while getting double teamed. LeBron hit his NOS button to get to his distressed big man. Moz hit him with a pass in the lane, and the Bucks scurried to avoid posterization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JESF_HSBEcE

A few plays later, Kyrie darted across the court using the baseline. The Bucks all stared at his fancy dribbles while the King sauntered quickly into the paint for another rim rattling throw down. The Bucks received strong play this quarter from Michael Carter-Williams, who had ten points, and Zaza Pachulia, who had six points. Both exploited the Cavs’ defense from mid-range, while Mozgov was still dropping back to contain any ball handlers.

Michael Carter-Williams’ shot chart for the first quarter

The Bucks’ long arms managed to rack up three steals, but could only get four fast break points off of them. Matthew Dellavedova managed to stop one break around the 4:48 mark by just running down the floor causing the Bucks to slow their pace and force up a shot. Delly followed that sequence with an off-the-dribble trey. At the end of one the Cavs led, 26-22.

Second Quarter

The Cavs and Bucks opened the quarter trading off turnovers. In the next three minutes, both teams combined for only five points. The Wine & Gold had eight throwaways in the quarter and the Bucks had three, yet the Deer couldn’t capitalize on the free possessions getting only two more fast break points.

Kyrie kept the Cavs offense humming. He had 17 points in the quarter. Irving hit four threes, sunk a technical free throw,  got fouled after making the Bucks see birds, and drained a Kyridiculous “I’m going to put the ball out in front of me while I split the trap and score over your big” basket. J.R. Smith added two more three-pointers. The Cavs actively moved the ball by dribbling in from the three-line and passing the ball back out and around the arc to force extra Bucks into the middle.

The Cavs also continued to focus on the paint. Tristan had a bucket and two freebies from the restricted land. The Mozerati tried to establish himself down low, although he had the ball ripped away once and then elbowed O.J. Mayo in the head.

The Bucks managed to stay with the Cavs during the quarter as far as getting shots to drop. However, their nine makes consisted of just two threes. The Cavs had nine makes too, but five of them were threes. The lesson to be learned is that the three-line is really helpful, especially when you turn the ball over a ton. Cavs went into the half ahead, 52-44.

Third Quarter

Mozgov’s Insides

This quarter had two parts to it: before the Bucks rage timeout and after it. The Cavs started the quarter riding in the Mozerati and went on a 9-2 run. Mozgov influenced the first three shots of the action, and the King kept rewarding his effort. On one play, the Bucks doubled LeBron and Mozgov found Khris Middleton switched onto him. Timo saw camera flashes when he dunked all over little Khris. Love finished this run by draining a three-pointer off a James pass. All three makes during the run were assisted. The Bucks called a panic timeout down by 15 and came back ready.

The Cavs then didn’t score for nearly five minutes. The Bucks caused six turnovers during that stretch, and scored 12 straight to get within two. The Wine & Gold were content to launch triples and barely pass the ball. Kyrie stopped the run when he James Harden-ed himself into the paint. He made little to no eye contact with the rim as he made sure to smash himself into Zaza Pachulia for the two freebies. Kyrie then found Iman Shumpert for a mid-range two pointer. The Cavs finished the final two minutes strongly on a 9-5 run. J.R. Smith hit a three-ball and a turnaround J. Cavs up, 74-72.

Fourth Quarter

The Cavs started the quarter moving the ball. On the first possession, Iman drove in from the corner and found a cutting LeBron in the paint. The King sunk his two freebies. LeBron stole the ball and set Tristan up for a dunk the next play. Both teams sagged off defensively. The paint was a welcoming zone for the Bucks, who had 12 of their first 14 points in the quarter there. Timo was on the bench not able to patrol his ceremonial grounds.

The Cavs were a little more varied in their scoring at least. J.R. hit two jumpers and LeBron had a vicious tip dunk on a missed Iman three-pointer. It dented the floor and rattled the Bucks so badly that they called a time out with 5:24 left. The Cavs were up six at that point, 92-86.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct1Kct6018g

Out of the timeout, O.J. Mayo hit a three-pointer, but Iman countered it by matching LeBron’s tip dunk with one of his own. With just 1:28 left and a two point lead, Kyrie embarrassed the Bucks. He drove in from the right side of the floor. He faked a pass. Then he faked a shot. And, finally, he finished with his right hand while sliding to the left side of the hoop. This was all in the span of two amazing steps. LeBron followed up that artwork by blocking Zaza Pachulia’s shot out of bounds, and then using the next possession to get a mid-range ISO shot. The King made up for his heave by hitting a game sealing three-pointer over Jared Dudley to put the Cavs up five with 14 seconds left. Cavs win, 104-99.

Gripes

1. Michael Carter-Williams had 30 points on 13-22 shooting, and he had eight assists. Kyrie had trouble dealing with MCW’s size. Williams really worked Kyrie whenever he got him into the paint or around it using a decent post-up game.

2. 18 turnovers isn’t going to fly in the playoffs. Thankfully for the Cavs, the Bucks aren’t exactly killers on the fast break yet and managed to score just 16 points from the turnovers. The Cavs scored 17 points off of 12 turnovers. The Bucks also had just eight fast break points, which the Cavs washed away with eight of their own.

3. The Bucks kept getting into the paint with relative ease when Mozgov wasn’t on the floor. The past three games the Cavs have allowed 37.3 points in the paint, and tonight they allowed 52 points. Protecting the paint will be an issue whenever Mozgov isn’t on the floor, and the starting guards are. J.R. Smith and Irving are both used to funneling their man into Timo. He is usually dropping back and just patrolling the paint so this works. When Tristan switches in for Moz, however, TT attacks pick and rolls and isn’t dropping back as far. This places extra pressure on the guards to stay in front of their man, since Tristan is going to be up near the screener trying to blow up the play. There’s no back line protection, unless someone rotates to protect the rim a little.

Hypes

Kevin Love’s shot chart

1. I’m happy that David Blatt tried to purposely work the ball into the post. When the ball got there, good stuff happened. LeBron would get double teamed and Kevin Love would too. Love did especially well down low. Nine of his 14 shots were in the paint or from the left baseline area. He made six of those and looked comfortable doing so. He didn’t shy from contact as he generally bullied people for space. Kevin’s presence in the post often sucked a wing defender a little bit closer to the paint, which freed up the Cavs wings guys.

2. The Cavs defense with Shumpert and Dellavedova on the floor is so fun to watch. Teams have no idea what to do when those two switch everything. Running little rub off screens around the three-point arc does nothing to these two guys. When LeBron or the small forward starts switching too, teams better be ready get pass really quickly if they want any open shots.

3. LeBron had 21 points on 8-15 shooting. He had eight assists and just two turnovers. He avoided his habit of driving in and forcing low passes. Instead, he worked the ball in from above to his big guys, or would whip the ball across the court after dribbling to the paint.

4.

Though not finalized, LeBron James hinted he’ll sit the next 2 games. Both are against Celtics so it could affect playoff race/seedings

— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) April 9, 2015