Recap: Cavs 101, Bucks 119 (or, Alphabetized)

After cruising along for much of this season, the Cavs finally had a night on the road where they forgot the basics and got taught a lesson by a hungry and athletic Bucks team, led by the man also known as The Alphabet. Quite simply, the wine & gold forgot their ABC’s on both sides of the ball in Milwaukee… because they neglected to Always Be Closing on defense… and Always Be Careful with the ball on offense.

Though they started strong, and looked to be well on their way to schooling yet another opponent in the 1-2-3’s of perimeter shooting (leading by as much as 14 points in the first quarter), things started to go south when LeBron sat for a spell. That’s when The Alphabet got tricky and started to put together runs like so many phrases, clauses and compound sentences. Pretty soon, the Cavs realized that keeping the Bucks from attacking the paint was harder than actually trying to spell Antetokounmpo.

All of the highlights for Cleveland came during stretches of the first 24 minutes, and included some letter perfect passes and throwdowns. And, even after they’d let the Bucks strikethrough their sizable early lead, they got some corrections from Kyrie with an early MFQ type of skill to put a full stop to the run-on. Down by as much as eight, they were still able to close the gap to just four by halftime, despite surrendering 58 points on 57% shooting to Milwaukee.

After watching the Cavs come back on Philadelphia Sunday afternoon in the latter stages, the assumption might have been that the rule would be the same on this night as well. At first, it looked like the Cavs were finally beginning to dot their “i’s” and cross their “t’s” when they caught and passed the Bucks following back to back long bombs from LeBron and Kev, and a Kyrie assist to TT for an easy bucket. But, just because “i” usually comes before “e” … doesn’t mean you don’t occasionally run into a complicated exception. And, in this case… the Cavs were deceived by the conceit of Giannis’ ceiling…

Rather than mark up this recap with a bunch of red ink, or grade it on a curve, I thought it would be more fun to spell it out for you…

… is for Antetokounmpo

The Alphabet uses all of the vowels in his name (except for the sometimes “y”), and he used all of the aspects of his game to dominate the Cavs. They don’t also call him the “Greek Freak” for nothing, as he’s as long and as difficult to handle as his surname. Typically, the key to mastering The Alphabet is to trap him in the half court and break him down into manageable syllables to force him to turn the ball over (which he did six times in the game). Unfortunately, the Cavs allowed him to get out and run the floor all night long, and he made them pay for it. The dude matched his career high of 34 on 13-19 shooting (mostly at the rim on dunks, fast breaks and put backs) with a three mixed in for good measure, while pulling down 12 boards, dishing five dimes, pilfering five steals and blocking a couple shots. About the only weakness in his game was the turnovers. This kid is already something special, and has all the tools to become a superstar in the League.

… is for Beasley

I genuinely thought Michael Beasley was in his mid-thirties by now, as it seems like he’s been around forever… and with so many different teams. Yet, the former 2008 second overall pick of the Heat, is still just 27 years old. He might be a only a journeyman backup these days, but he seems to be settling in nicely to the recently vacated OJ Mayo role for the Bucks. The Cavs had no answer for Beasley, as he was a big part of the Bucks’ comeback in the first quarter and subsequent run in the second to take the lead. He also did a pretty solid job of harassing LeBron into at least a couple of his seven turnovers. Beasley led the Milwaukee bench with 17 points on an economic 7-10 shooting, and always seemed to make a bucket just when the Cavs would start building a bit of momentum.

… is for Cavalier

Cleveland lived up to the adjective associated with their name tonight, as they looked like they tried for all of 7:12 to start the game. From that point, when they were up by a 14 point margin, they were outscored 9-0 to end the first quarter and 105-74 for the rest of the game. Their will to try and outhustle the Bucks seemed to exit along with LeBron during his first quarter break, and they never really recovered.

… is for Delly

While I know some might have suggested I use an alternate sub-head for this recap of “(or, The Delly Revenge Game)” I was not taking the bait. Delly certainly had an impact on this game, even if it was the kind of effect he used to have when he was coming off the bench for the wine & gold. He has struggled a bit so far this season with his shot (as evidenced by his 1-5 line in this game), but he’s still very good at making the right passes to set up his teammates. The Aussie had a game high seven assists in just 25 minutes (for a +17), serving up Loaded Wombats (or Gyros maybe?) to the Greek Freak, and finding open shooters. He also played his usual brand of aggressive defense to provide an additional layer to the tall trees of the Milwaukee big men. It’s nice to see Delly fitting in as a floor general for these guys… I’d just prefer it not be at the expense of the Cavs in the future.

… is for Effort

All of the effort after the first half of the first quarter seemed to belong to the Bucks. The Cavs did keep it interesting and competitive to close out the first half and to start the second, but too many errors and erratic defensive play ensured that victory escaped them eventually. “E” could also have been for “empty” which would just about describe the BMO Harris Bradley Center which seemed less than half full for this occasion.

… is for Forgettable

As LeBron said in his post game interview (while miming crumpling up something and throwing it away)… you just forget about this game and move onto the next…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrU1iO-SeIY

… is for Glass

Though the numbers don’t look that bad (Milwaukee finished with a 43-35 edge), it was mainly because the Bucks made 53.5% of their shots. They absolutely owned the defensive glass for long stretches of the game, often allowing the Cavs just one shot per possession (when they weren’t stealing it or forcing a turnover). Kevin Love still snagged a game high 13, but no other Cavs had more than five. Milwaukee has an extremely sizable rotation of bigs, and they all contributed.

… is for Hammer

Many hammers were thrown down in this game. Most of them were by the Bucks who jammed a month’s worth of highlights into one night, but instead of showing you those… here’s a pretty impressive one from LeBron…

https://vine.co/v/5UM3FrwJ1j2

… is for Inbounds

Normally, when we call attention to inbounds plays, it’s because of something brilliant that Ty Lue has drawn up coming out of a timeout. This particular inbounds play was the antonym of brilliant… although it’s still kind of brilliant when you consider the source. I mean, I’m sure it had been a while since J.R. had last seen Jason Terry… we all get caught up in the moment and forget where we are sometimes… right? In any event, replays showed the reason why Tony Snell happened to be as wide open as he was on hands down Delly’s easiest assist of the night…

… is for J.R.

Speaking of J.R., he wasn’t as cold as he’s been the past two games (where he was 1-22 from deep), since he hit two early threes. However, once he missed a wide open third one, he seemed to start forcing bad shots and never recovered… finishing 2-7 from downtown. And, even though he was cold before, he wasn’t quite this out of sorts defensively. The above video was only the most glaring of J.R.’s miscues on the night, as he was frequently out of position or late to close out on shooters, which had a domino effect on the defense. Swish seems to be suffering from missing most of training camp, and is still working to catch up both physically and mentally to where he was last season.

… is for Kyrie

It’s also for “kinda” since Ky was only effective some of the time. On one hand, his shooting came to the rescue in the second quarter to keep the Cavs afloat and give them a chance to come back. On the other, his defense was nowhere to be found. There was one addendum to that, as he took a teeth-rattling charge and just about got turned into soup by The Alphabet in the third quarter… but otherwise there wasn’t much for him to hang his hardhat on defensively. He shot just 5-12, but still chipped in 20 points by getting to the line eight times. He also uncharacteristically had just as many turnovers (3) as assists while facing his old backup.

… is for Length

The Bucks sure do have it by the yard. They start a front line of John Henson (6’11), Giannis (6’11) and Jabari Parker (6’8) with Tony Snell (6’7) and the relatively diminutive Delly (6’4). Then they bring in Greg Monroe (6’11), Michael Beasley (6’10), Thon Maker (7’1) and Malcolm Brogdon (6’5) off the bench. And, they didn’t even use Mirza Teletovic (6’9) or Miles Plumlee (6’11), and are without Khris Middleton (6’8) for most of the season. The shortest guy on the team is vet Jason Terry (6’2). The length definitely affected the Cavs’ ability to move the ball, and disrupted LeBron’s passing in particular. It also forced the Cavs out of their flow with their usual drive and kick game. Not sure if Channing Frye would have helped, although his own length and ability to draw the Bucks’ big men out of the paint might have made a difference.

… is for Minutes

About the only positive thing to come out of the end result of this one was that the starters all played right around 30 minutes. It probably could (and should) have been less… had Ty Lue stuck to his angry guns.

… is for Non-existent

For as porous as the Cavs D has been at various points so far, this was by far one of their poorest performances, as they couldn’t even pretend to stay in front of the Bucks most of the time.

Bucks are getting whatever they want this quarter from whatever spot on the floor. Atrocious defense from the Cavs this quarter

— Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) November 30, 2016

… is for Outlet Pass

Aside from Kevin Love’s 13 rebounds, there wasn’t much he was able to generate offensively (13 points on 3-10 shooting)… but he did have this awesome outlet for another touchdown to LeBron…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGgprnlxSX8

… is for Paint

The Bucks owned the painted area on the floor, literally doubling up the Cavs on points in the paint… 68-34, and 20 of them were of the fast break variety.

… is for Quit… as in Rage Quit

Ty Lue clearly had had enough of watching his starters go through the motions in the third quarter as he rage quit the entire lineup with just under four minutes remaining.

CLE down 78-67 with 3:49 to go in the 3rd Q and Ty Lue goes with the mass substitution: Liggins, JJ, Bird, Dunleavy, McRae in; everybody out

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 30, 2016

He was obviously stewing from his perch atop his stack of phone books, as he had a permanent stank-face plastered on for the duration. Reports before the game indicated that Lue had given the team the day off on Monday following the heavy minutes for the starters on Sunday in Philly. Doubtful that happens again tomorrow.

… is for Rotations

Yet, Coach Lue shares a bit of the blame here for riding his starters with a lopsided rotation in the first place. Granted, he’s still dealing with the absence of Frye from the lineup (at least until Thursday), but only Shump and Dunleavy got off the pine prior to the complete hockey line change 8+ minutes into the third quarter. I get that he’s experimenting with different lineups, but riding your starters for most of the first three quarters and then swapping them out wholesale because you’re pissed at the diminishing returns seems like a bad plan. As much as it was a rare off night for the team… it was also a rare off night for the coach.

… is for Steals

The Bucks pulled off some grand theft Spalding in this game… swiping 15 rocks from the Cavs. Five of them came from the long arms and sticky fingers of Giannis. Cleveland countered with seven of their own, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

… is for Turnovers

Beyond the steals, the Cavs committed 20 total turnovers, their season high. By not taking care of the ball, they fed into the Bucks’ game plan of getting out and running all night.

… is for Ugly

Aside from the opening seven minutes, this wasn’t a particularly attractive game to watch. “U” could also stand for unimpressive, uninspiring, unusual, unmotivated and useless.

… is for Vine

Since it’s going away soon… might as well memorialize the memorable Vines… especially the most mesmerizing and hypnotizing ones like this incredible, Shump-tastic putback slam…

https://vine.co/v/5UObHnvIBdF

… is for Worry?

While it was certainly the Cavs’ worst game of the young season, and probably one of their worst regular season losses since the MLK Day Massacre last year… it’s hardly a reason to panic. The Cavs were due for a game like this, especially against a good defensive team like the Bucks who can get up and down the floor and pose a problem with their size. If anything, it should be a nice wake up call for the tough week ahead (back to back against the Clips and the Bulls), and probably a teaching moment for Ty Lue. Although, he didn’t quite go full Popovich and keep his starters glued to the bench through the end. Best thing for the Cavs to do is take the lumps for what they are… process it, and move on to the next. After all, they still finish November at 13-3, which is hard to complain about.

… is for X-Rays

Which is what Mike Dunleavy probably had to get after his head collided with The Alphabet’s shoulder in the fourth quarter. Hopefully, Mike is fine, but he sure looked a little concussed as he weaved back down the court before being taken out by Coach Lue.

… is for YOLO

Milwaukee is the latest team to throw their best punch at the Cavs, and the hits should keep on coming. Since we’ve never experienced a season where our team are the reigning champions, it can still come as a surprise when we see opponents take their game to another level when the Cavs roll into their towns. There’s a Larry O’Brien shaped target on the backs of every Cleveland jersey, and every night can wind up feeling like a playoff atmosphere. That’s got to be a tough standard to uphold, so anytime the Cavs have an off-game like this one, it’s got the potential to be magnified.

… is for Zebras

I’m glad this is last, because I never like to complain much about the officials. However, not only did they allow an inordinate amount of contact by the Bucks in this game, but they also missed some blatant calls (like two ridiculously obvious double dribble violations for Milwaukee). LeBron also seemed to have an ongoing series of disagreements with one ref in particular…

LeBron has been glaring and yelling at referee Mark Ayotte most of the night. And now he's doing it again

— Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) November 30, 2016

Parting Shot

Now I know my ABC’s… Next time won’t you sing with me… Or, at least leave your ski mask and alter ego at home?

JR Smith's response to losing his man on defense while speaking to Jason Terry may be better than the play itself

pic.twitter.com/qd2gDFUso7

— NBA SKITS (@NBA_Skits) November 30, 2016