NBA: Thanks to Love – Cavs, Giannis Gala

The Cleveland Cavaliers (5-6) beat the Milwaukee Bucks (4-6) with 124:119 in a long time close game. Besides LeBron James, the Cavs were able to rely on Kevin Love, who set a record for the season with 32 points. For the Bucks, another outstanding Giannis Antetokounmpo was not enough.

It started well for the Cavs, who were able to play a 13-point lead early on thanks to a good shooting by JR Smith (at the beginning 3/3 FG). Milwaukee did a lot of turnovers and also experienced problems with foul play. In the second quarter, however, the guests nibbled steadily, especially Giannis Antetokounmpo, behind and even took a small advantage into the cabin (67:65).

Thanks to Kevin Love’s strong performance, the Cavs didn’t break apart, but fought their way back into the game and took a lead in the final section. There the Second Unit relieved the starters and played itself again a cushion. Outstanding in this respect is J. R. Smith (20 points, 5/7 threesome), who was looking for the throw more aggressively again. In the end, Cleveland always had the lead. Milwaukee did not give up, but the men from Ohio always had the right answer in the end.

Over 20 points also went to Cleveland Kevin Love (32 points, 16 rebounds, 9/14 FG, 14/16 FT) and LeBron James (30 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists). Dwyane Wade added another 10 counters and 2 blocks.

For the Bucks Antetokounmpo was the top scorer with 40 points (16/21 FG) and 9 rebounds. However, the Greek scored only four points in the final quarter and made some unnecessary turnovers. He found support in Khris Middleton (20 points, 11 assists), Malcolm Brogdon (22) and also Mirza Teletovic (16,4/8 threesomes).

Cleveland benefited from the many bucks’ fouls at the beginning. Thon Maker and John Henson got one whistle after the next and had to spend a lot of time on the bench. Most of the time Love managed to get the better position in the fight for the rebound and made a lot of fouls. So he took 12 free throws already in the first half. After 48 minutes, Love had taken as many free throws as the entire Bucks-Team (16). In total, the Cavs scuttled 33 of the 38 tests for a good 86.8 percent.

Turnovers also caused Milwaukee early problems. In the first two minutes it was already four minutes, after twelve minutes seven. In the second quarter, the guests were much more careful and there was no further increase. Cleveland on the other side was down by halfway through with 9 ball losses. Later in the game, Milwaukee made similar mistakes as in the beginning. Antetokounmpo was also not innocent with 8 ball losses. The Cavs took advantage of this mercilessly and moved away. At the end there were 17 turnovers for the bucks (Cavs: 12).

There were also some milestones. J.R. Smith has moved up to 14th place in history’s top three shooter rankings after his five turned threesomes. He overtook Rashard Lewis with now 1790 Triples. Meanwhile, LeBron finished his 1073rd year. He has equalled with Michael Jordan.

Cavs vs. Bucks: This way to the BOXSCORE!

Kevin Love. Finally a dominant game of the big one. Constantly challenged the spalding and got it from LeBron and Co. Unlike in the past, this time he was not found at the perimeter, but in the post office where he feels most comfortable. Just did with Henson what he wanted and dominated his matchup. Playing some good Help Defense and blocking the Greek Freak elitist away, nobody scored more than 30 points against the Bucks this season.

The Bucks’ centers. The only statistic in the boxing score that Maker and Henson filled out that night was the fouls. Especially Henson collected five fouls in just 17 minutes (7 points, 3 turnovers). Maker also covered himself with little fame (5 points, 2/5 FG) and was hardly used after the break. Coach Kidd had to play smaller lineups and didn’t have to take advantage of the narrow Cavs bank.

Without Tristan Thompson, the Big-Man rotation of the Cavs is very thin. So there was a lot of small ball to see. At first it was LeBron who dressed the five for a few minutes, but coach Lue pulls Jeff Green out of the hat at the beginning of the second quarter. Ringschutz was such a foreign word, the Bucks moved cheerfully to the basket and scored. In this phase, the advantage was also lost. In the fourth quarter, there was a similar situation, but Rose stayed on the bench and Smith brought more spacing and scoring, so the defensive deficit did not matter.