Bucks at Cavs

Giannis is out for tonight's game. Did not hear why.

Lillard Beasley, Middleton, Lopez and Jackson, Jr are Milwaukee's starters.

Bruised shoulder. I'm not sure how you can not show up on an injury report at all until today and then have a bruised shoulder after having 3 days off. For a nationally televised game, no less. Seems odd.

Hubie Brown doing the color commentary.  Better get some caffeine!

Beasley scores first for the Bucks. 2-6 Cavs.

Bucks already down 9-2. If you were going to sit Giannis against a good team, you might as well as given some others some rest as well.

I don't understand why you'd sit him, unless he somehow got hurt in practice, but if that was the case they'd have had to file an injury report earlier.

Seems like you are giving away an important game when you have a scheduled day off tomorrow.

Cavs with a 13 point lead...

Cavs up 20-2.

Might as well bench guys and save them. Bucks just didn't show up for nationally televised game on 3 days rest. I don't care if Giannis is out, their defense has just been terrible again.

No shots falling for the Bucks while almost everything going in for the Cavs.

Dame looked like he took 6 steps without dribbling, in the paint. No whistle.

22-2

Finally! 2 from Lopez.

Portis with a 3.

Portis hits another 3. Did I see a halo around his head? No, just a sweat band.

Jae Crowder makes an appearance.

@mrtundra posted:

Dame looked like he took 6 steps without dribbling, in the paint. No whistle.

Dame is 1 of 7.

Middleton is 0 for 4.

Lopez is being clowned.

Portis has at least prevented them from being down 30 after the first quarter.

10 point game, now.

Bucks get it back to 30-22 and "only" trail by 10 after the first.

But now Lillard sits with no Giannis available.

Bucks looking like the Badgers did last night. Not a lot of defense and getting swarmed on offense.

Bucks down 21. Ugly!

The Bucks defense is nonexistent and this has nothing to do with Giannis sitting out.

The Bucks have too much talent to lose enough games to get Griffin fired, but he's completely over his head. I'm assuming opposing teams must look at his defensive schemes and just laugh.

Now down 47-26.

The Bucks have already given up 6 offensive rebounds, a handful of transition layups, and several wide open 3s. The Bucks defense looks like a bunch of guys in a pickup game at the Y that have never played together before.

@mrtundra posted:

Bucks looking like the Badgers did last night. Not a lot of defense and getting swarmed on offense.

THe Bucks look like that most nights on defense. Usually, they have too much talent on offense and score enough to stay in games. Without Giannis, they have no real inside scoring presence. Lopez could do it, but they park him at the 3 point line.

Niang and Mitchell almost have more points than the Bucks do.

Middleton's +/- tonight is -30 in 12 minutes.

The Bucks are actually +9 in the 10 minutes he's sat.

Nothing like having a +/- equivalent to -120 over an entire game.

The Bucks 3 game winning streak included

1. A win against the Celtics who were coming off a back to back OT game the night before.

2. A win against the Warriors without Steph or Draymond

3. Required a 35 foot Dame buzzer beater.

It was a mirage.

My god, the transition defense is beyond embarrassing.

Halftime. Bucks getting killed.

66-41 at the half.

It follows a pattern in 2024.

Bucks gave up 66 in the first half to the Kings in the OT win.

77 in the first half to the Jazz.

They were down 63-43 to the Rockets at the half.

They gave up 59 to the Spurs in the first half and they may not win 15 games this year.

The Bucks are just a terrible defensive team and that's almost all on Adrian Griffin.

This team is going nowhere, in a hurry, if they don't fix this defense. Middleton is not the player he was when we won the championship, either. 

Cavs can lay it up, at will.

73-43

Now 80-48 after another amazingly easy drive and kick wide open 3 from the Cavs.

Middleton's +/- has now climbed to -41 in 18 minutes.

Good thing Griffin called timeout there down 80-48. I'm trying to imagine what he tells them in huddles.

Brook Lopez, trying to jump start this team, plows into a Cavs defender and was in awe the refs called a foul on him.

Griffin calls timeout to post up Lopez and have him shove Allen 3 times in the chest and then get upset with an obvious offensive foul? And then calls timeout again afterwards? What a fool.

Griffin needs to go. The Bucks should not be losing to Cleveland by 40 in the 3rd quarter.

@mrtundra posted:

Brook Lopez, trying to jump start this team, plows into a Cavs defender and was in awe the refs called a foul on him.

He committed at least 2 if not 3 obvious offensive fouls on that play. It wasn't subtle.

7:10 left in the 3rd and Middleton gets his first two points of the game. He is 1 for 10.

Wow. Thanasis with 19 minutes left. He's definitely going to foul out tonight.