This has to be one of the two or three most impressive wins of the year. Holding the Bucks to 100 when they average 124.5 was the key. Just an incredible defensive performance. They saw what went wrong two nights ago and fixed it. They forced 18 turnovers and blocked 8 shots. Really impressive. They proved they can play with the big boys on the road even without two starters.
The Cavs shot 31 free throws tonight versus 15 on Wednesday. They were definitely more aggressive. They missed nine but fortunately won anyway.
The Bucks' age was showing. Lillard was 7-for-24 and was abused on defense, Lopez was 4-for-14 and a couple of those were put-backs, and Middleton was 5-for-16. All three of the Bucks' 30-something starters had bad nights offensively. And wonder of wonders, Giannis was called for three offensive fouls.
Mitchell was awesome with a line of 32/8/6, but he still played too much iso. Allen had a nice game with 24 points and 14 boards, but he still missed a few shots because he had one eye on the bucket and the other on Lopez. He needs to just focus on the shot and not rush it.
Niang was a +10 off the bench and yes, he had some key baskets to keep the Cavs in front when the Bucks got hot from the 3-point line. Damian Jones had 4 points, 7 rebounds, an assist, and two blocks in 12 minutes, doing an excellent Tristan Thompson on PED's impersonation. LeVert had a line of 12/4/5 in 24 minutes but that 3-pointer that gave the Cavs a 9-point lead and broke the Bucks momentum was the biggest shot of the game.
Strus pushed the lead to 16 points with four minutes to go, but the Cavs almost choked the game away. The Bucks cut the lead to 6 over the next two minutes, but with 1:39 to go LeVert buried a contested 3-pointer with one second on the shot clock. Cold.
Love this team. I thought they would play much better the second time around and they certainly did. Everybody contributed, although Okoro was 1-for-6 with 3 points in 31 minutes. Huge win.