Cavaliers blow out Bucks 135-95

BY TIM SHIRER

CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER

(CLEVELAND, OH) - The Cleveland Cavaliers (23-13, 14-8 home) entered Wednesday night’s matchup with the Central Division leading Milwaukee Bucks (28-12, 9-8 road) on a five game winning streak. It was the second matchup of the season between the two clubs. They met on December 29th and the Bucks picked up the win 119-111 when the Cavs shot a miserable 14% (6 of 43) from behind the three-point line. Wednesday night was a completely different story as the Cavaliers blew out the Bucks 135-95 to cut the Bucks first place lead over the Cavs to three games and extending the Cavs win streak to six games.

The Cavs got off to a fast start and with 10:15 left on the first quarter clock the Cavs took a 9-2 lead on a three pointer from Donovan Mitchell right in front of the Bucks bench. The Bucks called a timeout before things got out of hand. Apparently the timeout did not work as the Cavs continued to score and took a 20-2 lead with 7:42 left when Mitchell drained another three, this time from the top of the arc. The Bucks took another timeout. The Bucks put a run together over the next 3:42 to cut the Cavs lead to 15 at 26-11 with 3:59 left on the first quarter clock when Damian Lillard dropped in a layup. Then with :26.1 left in the corner the Bucks cut the Cavs lead to 30-22 on a three pointer by Pat Connaughton. When the first quarter clock expired the Cavs had a 32-22 lead. Mitchell led all scorers in the first 12 minutes with 14 points. Lillard led the Bucks with seven points. Giannis Antetokounmpo was not active for the game. The Cavs dominated the boards in the first quarter outrebounding the Bucks 17-10 and won the battle in the paint 18-8.

The Cavs scored first in the second quarter when Georges Niang drove the lane and deposited a layup putting the Cavs on top 34-22 with 10:55 left in the second. The Cavs extended the lead to 39-23 when Sam Merrill pulled down a rebound on a miss by Craig Porter, Jr. and dropped it in with 9:42 left on the clock in the opening half. The Cavs lead ballooned to 46-25 when Porter hit Niang who drained a three from in front of the Bucks bench with 7:59 left on the clock. Niang hit another three with 7:32 left to give the Cavs a 49-25 lead and gave him his season of 17 eclipsing his previous high of 16 on December 27th in Dallas against the Mavericks. The Bucks cut the lead to 52-32 on a jumper by Andre Jackson, Jr. with 5:14 left in the first half. The Bucks cut the lead again to 57-41 when Cam Payne hit a jumper and was fouled by Mitchell and hit the free throw with 3:34 left in the second. The Cavs once again responded and with 2:33 Okoro hit Mitchell and he drained a three extending the Cavs lead to 62-41. The Cavs continued to extend when Dean Wade slammed one home and was fouled by Khris Middleton. He missed the free throw, but the Cavs led 66-41 with :47 left on the clock in the half which was the score at halftime. Niang led all scorers in the first half with 20 points. Lillard paced the Bucks with 10 first half points. Cleveland dominated in every phase of the game from rebounding with a 36-18 edge to points in the paint 32-16 to fast break points 22-2 and finally to points off the bench 27-22.

With 11:06 left the Cavs went up 70-41 on a layup by Allen which was their biggest lead of the night to that point. They then took a 73-43 lead when Okoro hit Allen and Allen was fouled by Malik Beasley, Allen hit the free throw with 10:07 left. The Jarrett Allen third quarter show continued with 9:54 left when Allen scored again giving the Cavs a 31 point lead at 75-44 and seven points in the first 2:06 of the second half giving him 17 points at that point of the contest. With 8:46 left Wade hit a three to give the Cavs an 80-48 lead and Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer to call a timeout. With 4:50 left in the third Allen hit a jumper in the paint giving Cleveland a 94-56 lead. With 2:06 left in the third quarter Mitchell hit a jumper to put the Cavs up 100-60. The basket gave Mitchell 11,000 points in the NBA. The Cavs led when the buzzer sounded on the third quarter 108-67 and the Cavs had gone to the bench. Mitchell finished his night with 31 points, leading all scorers through three quarters. Lillard led the Bucks with 17 points. The Cavs continued to dominate in every aspect.

The fourth quarter didn’t get any better for Giannis less Bucks as the Cavs bench continued the domination. Allen who finished up his night in the third quarter had his tenth straight double double pulling down 13 rebounds (10 defensive) and scored 21 points. Niang, who played most of the fourth quarter achieved his career high with 33 blowing past his previous high of 24 which he did three separate times.

Niang was the leading scorer in the game, Merrill and Okoro had 10 points each rounding out the five Cavs in double figures in scoring. Lillard led the Bucks finishing with 17 points in a losing effort. Bobby Portis, Jr. had 16 for Milwaukee and former Cav Jae Crowder finished with 15 points.

The Cavs will be in action next on Saturday when they travel to Atlanta to take on the Hawks at State Farm Arena at 7:30 pm. The Cavs and Hawks have met twice this season, both in Cleveland and the Cavs won both games 128-105 and 127-119..