Game Night Observations: Cavs' growth evident in third matchup with Bucks

There came a point on Wednesday night where things started to look familiar for the Cavaliers. For the third time this season, they were taking on the Eastern Conference-leading Milwaukee Bucks.

For the third time this season, the Cleveland Cavaliers had a double-digit lead over the Bucks. In each of the first two games, that lead slipped away and ultimately led to 15-point losses.

That could have happened again on Wednesday. The Cavaliers greatly outplayed the Bucks in the first half, entering halftime with a 60-42 lead. In each of the first two losses in Milwaukee, poor play in the third quarter sunk the Cavs. This time, the team held strong in that quarter on its way to a 114-106 victory.

“I think that was a big emphasis tonight,” Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said of the third quarter. “We didn't come out lackadaisical, we came and threw the first punch tonight.”

It wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination for the Cavs, but it was a strong performance in a big game. After losing the first two games against Milwaukee, this wasn’t just any regular mid-December game. It was one that was important in the standings as well as to see how the Cavs stacked up with one of the best teams in basketball.

“I’d be lying to you if I said that competition and who this team is doesn’t excite you a little bit more and bring out a little bit more from your guys, because that’s competition,” Bickerstaff said before the game. “Whenever you face champions or whenever you face the best, you wanna give them your best shot.”

While not being the best game the Cavs have played this season, it may register as the most important performance they’ve put on thus far. Milwaukee is a team that has won a championship with their core. The Bucks know what it takes to be at the highest level in the basketball world. They’re something the Cavaliers are hoping to become one day.

The Bucks are also a team that wasn’t going to go away quietly when the Cavs threw the first punch on Wednesday. They were going to go on runs, they were going to fight back, they were going to compete until the game was truly out of reach.

That’s where the growth comes into play. Earlier in the season, this is a game that the Cavaliers may not have been able to finish. They have had problems closing games out, and with the Bucks getting to within five points in the final two minutes of the game despite the Cavs leading by as many as 24, it wouldn’t have been a shock to see things go sideways once again.

“You can feel it in the arena, everybody got a little tense, even us a little bit,” Cavs center Jarrett Allen said. “But we shook it off and did the job.”

Getting the job done shows some of the growth that this team has made from the start of the season until now. They’re certainly not a finished product, at least they hope not to be, and they’re not the same product they were earlier in the year.

“I think it's night and day,” Cavs guard Donovan Mitchell said of the team’s poise from the start of the season compared to now. “That's a testament of a team that wants to win and continue to grow and now we just gotta continuously do it and be consistent. We look at nights like tonight, we'll see these games continuously, but when you get later in the season, you look at nights like this. Like, alright, this is what we could be, this is what we've done, we've shown we can do it and we've just got to continue to be consistent.”

That growth was evident on Wednesday night for the Cavs. There’s no telling for sure, but without that growth, this may not have been a game the team hangs on for a win in.

“I think earlier on in the season, we probably would have given that game away,” Darius Garland said. “I think we had great poise. I think they cut it four in the fourth and I think that’s when everybody started panicking a bit in the arena, you feel that tension a lot.”

Spidastar

Another big reason the Cavaliers won this game was the play of Mitchell. He, once again, played like a guy that belongs on the ballot for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award.

What was impressive about his night was that he got the job done despite having a bit of an off night shooting the basketball. Mitchell finished with a team-high 36 points on 9-of-21 from the floor and 3-of-9 from beyond the arc. He was able to get to the free throw line for a season-high 16 attempts. Despite being pestered four-time NBA All-Defense guard Jrue Holiday for much of the night, Mitchell found a way to get it done on offense. That’s what superstars do.

It wasn’t just that for Mitchell, either. His offense output is certainly what’s going to be the first area of his game that people notice, but his defense this season has been better than it had been in prior years in his career. Mitchell likely won’t be making either of the two All-Defense teams at the end of the season, but he has put forth a considerable amount of effort on the floor, and that’s something that’s made a difference for the Cavs’ league-best defense.

This was a really strong defensive sequence by Donovan Mitchell. Chases two guys off the 3-point line and then forces a jump ball. He's been much better on this end of the floor than advertised. pic.twitter.com/hupM0lrQsP

— Danny Cunningham (@RealDCunningham) December 22, 2022

Defensive plan

Giannis Antetokounmpo had a fantastic game for the Bucks, finishing with a game-high 45 points on 17-of-27 shooting to go along with 14 rebounds. The problem for the Bucks, was that he was the only one to surpass 15 points. Brook Lopez finished with 14 points as the team’s second-leading scorer.

When defending Antetokounmpo, there are essentially two schools of thought. The first option is to sell out to ensure that he’s not able to attack the basket relentlessly and hope that the rest of his teammates don’t win the game for Milwaukee.

This is the strategy the Cavs took in their first game of the season against the Bucks. They held Antetokounmpo to a season-low 16 points. In doing so, the Cavs were unable to shut down other members of the Bucks, mainly Brook Lopez who scored 29 points on seven made 3-pointers. That strategy resulted in a 15-point loss.

The other school of thought is to try make things difficult for Antetokounmpo while limiting what his teammates can do offensively. This strategy, more often than not, is going to lead to Antetokounmpo having a big scoring night but the rest of the team not having as much success.

This is what the Cavaliers did on Wednesday night. Allen was primarily the one tasked with defending Antetokounmpo. Even though he finished the night with 45 points, it can still be considered a strong performance for the Cavs as a defensive unit because Bucks players other than Antetokounmpo shot just 39.2% from the floor. That’s something that’s done by design.

There are going to be nights when almost everything is done well defensively against this Bucks team and it won’t matter because role players hit tough shots. When that happens, the Bucks aren’t going to lose very often.

This isn’t to say that there’s a right or wrong strategy in doing this. It is something that would be fascinating to see how the Cavs handle should these two teams meet in a best-of-seven playoff series in early May, though.