Photo: Andrew Glockner/Cleveland.com

It wasn't the most memorable game, nor was it even close to the Cavaliers' best performance of the season, but it was a special game for me, because my family and I were in attendance tonight. The wine and gold started cold and ended colder, but their third quarter run to create a double digit lead and their second half defense proved to be just enough for their fifth straight win to improve to 20-7 before their four-game west coast holiday swing.

Deja vu all over again: Last time the Bucks and Cavs locked heads, Milwaukee jumped out to an 11-0 lead. Tonight, the Bucks had the hot start once again, jumping out to an 18-7 advantage. The Bucks started 8-for-11 and had six guys involved in scoring early, while the Cavaliers started 3-for-9. The one positive for the Cavaliers was that Shaquille O'Neal drew two early fouls on Bucks center Andrew Bogut. Mo Williams was called for an offensive foul just twenty seconds in, and he was slow to get up. A few minutes later, he was blocked by Andrew Bogut and struggled to get his shoe back on. As Milwaukee raced down the floor 5-on-4 and drilled a three pointer, LeBron in turn raced past them and nearly ran over Mo.

Bench bunch falls behind but recovers: After the Cavaliers got the defecit to just two to end the quarter, Milwaukee rattled off another 8-0 run and took a 10 point lead with the bench bunch on the floor for Cleveland. But, "The Wild Bunch", as Austin Carr likes to call them, got things under control before Mo and LeBron got back into the game. By the time James checked in with just under six minutes to go in the second, the Cavs trailed by just two, and two Moon free throws tied it immediately. Varejao, Ilgauskas, Moon, West, and Gibson all scored during that stretch to trim the margin. Normally, however, I think resting Mo and LeBron for the same extended stretch is a terrible idea. Luckily for Cleveland, Delonte was on target tonight, but on those nights when he is not, you are sitting the only two guys who can create shots for themselves in Mo and LeBron. The minutes shuffle for Mike Brown continues, and while I understand a lot of it, he's got to try and nail down some more stability in that area.

Hot Gotti in the third: Mo struggled with scoring in the first half, but he certainly had no problem doing so in the third quarter. Mo scored 10 of his 17 on the night in the third quarter on 4-of-6 shooting. The Cavaliers went from trailing by two to boasting a ten point lead after three thanks to holding the Bucks to just 12 third quarter points. LeBron was also on the cusp of a triple double with 22 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists after 36 minutes. The most interesting thing in the third quarter was that Mike Brown ran his starters ragged and barely used the bench. He subbed for just two players in the third as LeBron, Mo, and Anthony Parker played the entire twelve minutes. Anderson Varejao subbed in for Shaq with under four minutes left, and Hickson played all but 23 seconds of the third when Z checked in. The results for that quarter were hard to argue with, but it may have led to the questionable fourth quarter play.

Offensive blizzard in fourth: The Cavaliers increased their lead to thirteen early in the fourth, and they looked poised to blowout the Bucks. But, Scott Skiles's crew is not one to give up; you are going to have to put them away on your own. As the quarter went on, the Cavaliers didn't look worried about the outcome because they were content to jack up poor looks as the shotclock dwindled. Part of it was the bench (with Mo instead of Boobie) was out their for the first several minutes of the quarter. LeBron and Mo combined for just 7 fourth quarter points, and it was Delonte West who did the heavy lifting. West scored three field goals in the final quarter for 7 points. The problem was those three accounted for all the team's points. The Cavaliers were held to just 14 points, 11 in the last 11+ minutes, and 0 in the final 4:35 as the Bucks outscored them 14-2 to close out the game.

Ilya-who-va?: The one guy who was mainly responsible for making the Cavaliers sweat this one out was Ersan Ilyasova. I'll admit that I had no clue who this guy was until the Cavaliers played them a few weeks ago. The 6'10", 22 year old power forward from Turkey had seven first quarter points, and he made four shots in the game's final six and a half minutes for 9 points. He finished with 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting, adding 7 rebounds and 2 steals. Another atypical star for the Bucks was bench veteran Charlie Bell; he had 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting. As for the typical stars of the team (Michael Redd, Andrew Bogut, and Brandon Jennings), Redd had 7 points on 2-of-9 shooting, Bogut battled foul trouble all night and had just 4 points and 8 rebounds, and Jennings had 18 points but was just 5-of-21 shooting, also contributing 4 rebounds and 8 assists.

Clutch defense brings home the W: The Cavaliers needed some top-notch D to win this one while not scoring for the last four a half minutes. After a terrible no-call for LeBron as he crashed into Ilyasova while he was in the restricted circle as he lost the ball, Milwaukee got the ball back with ten seconds left down three. The Bucks inbounded the ball, and the shot came for Brandon Jennings on the right wing off a pick, which Mo Williams did a fantastic job of fighting under. Mo stood his ground, put his hands straight up, and made the rookie shoot right over top of him. Jennings drew nothing but air, and Anderson Varejao grabbed the board with about 3 seconds left and chucked it into the backcourt as he fell out of bounds, and time expired thanks to a heady move by Andy.

Upon further review: Two calls late in the game let the Cavaliers escape victoriously. I mentioned the no-call on the LeBron drive, but the other two at least even that no-call out. First, when Moon fouled Brandon Jennings, at least two and a half seconds ran off the clock after the whistle was blown. Scott Skiles tried to argue that point, but the officials were not having any of it. The clock stayed at 29.4 and the Cavaliers held possession until LeBron's drive and fumble out of bounds with just under ten seconds left. The next and most important call was on Varejao's heave into the backcourt as his foot appeared to be on the line as he threw the ball. The Bucks would have maintained possession with a couple of seconds left with one more shot to force overtime.

Game ball goes to: This was a special evening, so I had a special way of determining the game ball. I gave each of my family members a vote for game ball in addition to myself. However, we each picked someone different, so I went to the Vice President, I mean J.V., to break the tie in the Cavalier senate. Here were the results.

Mom - Anderson Varejao, for his two key plays in the final ninety seconds. 6 points and 7 rebounds.
Dad - LeBron James, for his near triple-double effort. 26 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 blocks, and 12-of-14 shooting from the line.
sister - Delonte West, for his key buckets (which were few and far between) in the fourth quarter. 12 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.
yours truly - Mo Williams, for his work in creating the double digit lead for the wine and gold in the third quarter. Williams had 10 third quarter points. 17 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and steals.

J.V.'s tiebreaker - Delonte West, so we'll give it to Delonte for his inspired fourth quarter performance.

Team Grade: B-

All four (five, actually) of us were in favor of this type of grade. The Bucks are a little tougher than the Nets and Sixers (although, Philly did beat Boston tonight), and they have a little bit more defensive toughness than those two teams as well. The Cavaliers defense was great, holding the Bucks to 82 points and just 36 percent shooting, both some of the best numbers all year. Even more impressive was the fact that Milwaukee managed just 33 second half points. Offensively, the Cavaliers only had three in double figures and scored only 14 fourth quarter points with just 3 dimes in the final stanza. They only had 15 turnovers (I say only considering the numbers lately), but they did give up too many offensive boards (12). All in all, it was a passing grade with a little bit of a sour taste heading out west.

The four-game trip out west includes stops in Dallas, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Los Angeles on Christmas day to take on the Lakers. This is going to be an incredibly tough trip, and a 3-1 clip out there would be fantastic. Realistically though, the way they are playing, they will be fortunate to split the four games. They may have gotten a stroke of luck, however. Dirk Nowitzki is questionable for Sunday night's game after knocking his elbow into Carl Landry's mouth and knocking five of his teeth out. Two of the fragments had to be removed from Dirk's elbow, his right (and shooting) elbow. The Suns are undefeated at home, the Kings are 10-3 at home despite being 11-14 overall, and the Lakers are, well, the Lakers. This, along with the home game against Houston and the home and home against Atlanta will tell us a lot about this team's strength.

All for one. One for all.

Kirk

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment