Game 33: Bucks @ Cavs 12/21/2022

[ijspeelman]

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[ijspeelman]

Going to need to swing above our average from three to win this game imo.

I just don’t think we are going to get enough in the paint against this team with our lack of spacing.

[ijspeelman]

Man, Giannis is so hard to guard. Still don’t love all the calls he gets and it’s going to make our bigs have to play softer which is not what we want.

When Giannis went out, our offense and defensive have exploded

[ijspeelman]

Gorgeous offensive and defensive half. Never going to count out the Bucks even with an 18 point lead. We are playing Giannis well and he’s getting most of his points from the line.

I’m most surprised by how much we are getting in the paint.

[CharityStripe34]

Good win. This is literally Jrue Holiday's worst ever game. My guess is because they cant close the gap Bud is going to bench Gianni. Bucks the old team on a road trip and everyone except Giannis and Beauchamp.

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[ijspeelman]

Good win. This is literally Jrue Holiday's worst ever game. My guess is because they cant close the gap Bud is going to bench Gianni. Bucks the old team on a road trip and everyone except Giannis and Beauchamp.

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It’s definitely not over yet lol. Bucks are too good for me to comfortable ever

[CharityStripe34]

Good win. This is literally Jrue Holiday's worst ever game. My guess is because they cant close the gap Bud is going to bench Gianni. Bucks the old team on a road trip and everyone except Giannis and Beauchamp.

Sent from my LM-K500 using RealGM mobile app

It’s definitely not over yet lol. Bucks are too good for me to comfortable ever

Gianni being a goat-level player dragged them back into it but they could never get 4-5 consecutive stops that they needed. Nice win, it was well-deserved.

[JujitsuFlip]

Giannis dropping 45, for sure not a team I wanna see in the playoffs.

[TheLand13]

So something I want to point out…

Okoro starting at SF has actually done wonders for our defense. Even if he doesn’t have the size you’d want at SF, the defensive activity is so good on his end that he’s still managing to be a very disruptive and pesky defender.

When Wade comes back, he needs to get the starting spot again. But I think Okoro is showing us all why he’s still very valuable to this team.

[jasonxxx102]

Man, Giannis is so hard to guard. Still don’t love all the calls he gets and it’s going to make our bigs have to play softer which is not what we want.

When Giannis went out, our offense and defensive have exploded

I'd go one step further and say borderline impossible.

JA did a really great job defending him without fouling to close out the game tho

What a great win from the Cavs. My boy Okoro looked awesome.

I don't like that we blew such a huge lead but a win is a win so can't complain.

[JonFromVA]

Man, Giannis is so hard to guard. Still don’t love all the calls he gets and it’s going to make our bigs have to play softer which is not what we want.

When Giannis went out, our offense and defensive have exploded

I did think we did a better job walling off Giannis as the game went along, but it's irritating he's getting so many calls when he's initiating the contact.

We actually didn't shoot very well from 3pt, but Mitchell managed to wear out his own path to the charity stripe and we actually scored 7 more points on free throws than the Bucks.

The ability to get to the line cannot be underestimated in a playoff context. LeBron's career game .vs. the Piston's may have had a different ending because Billups almost matched James bucket for bucket primarily by drawing fouls.

We can't count on the Bucks turning the ball over like that, and they showed again defensively they can give our guards a lot of grief when they turn up the on the ball pressure. They'll need to learn how to overcome that.

It just felt like the Cavs had more quality players on the floor ... basically our Core 4 .vs. Giannis, which was of course amplified when he rested.

[ijspeelman]

Man, Giannis is so hard to guard. Still don’t love all the calls he gets and it’s going to make our bigs have to play softer which is not what we want.

When Giannis went out, our offense and defensive have exploded

I did think we did a better job walling off Giannis as the game went along, but it's irritating he's getting so many calls when he's initiating the contact.

We actually didn't shoot very well from 3pt, but Mitchell managed to wear out his own path to the charity stripe and we actually scored 7 more points on free throws than the Bucks.

The ability to get to the line cannot be underestimated in a playoff context. LeBron's career game .vs. the Piston's may have had a different ending because Billups almost matched James bucket for bucket primarily by drawing fouls.

We can't count on the Bucks turning the ball over like that, and they showed again defensively they can give our guards a lot of grief when they turn up the on the ball pressure. They'll need to learn how to overcome that.

It just felt like the Cavs had more quality players on the floor ... basically our Core 4 .vs. Giannis, which was of course amplified when he rested.

I was most surprised that the Bucks shot a similar amount of threes on higher efficiency and we still won. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get the paint, but we ended with 54 points in the paint to Milwaukee’s 46.

Maybe there is some stock in letting Giannis have his and not overreacting when he has the ball so there are no huge openings on doubles. They shot above average on three, but they couldn’t get anything going in the paint besides Giannis and a few Brook post ups. We played Giannis mainly one-on-one with either Allen or Mobley guarding and making sure to build a wall when he had a head of steam, but there weren’t mainly doubles (I can remember a few when he was posted up).

[JonFromVA]

Man, Giannis is so hard to guard. Still don’t love all the calls he gets and it’s going to make our bigs have to play softer which is not what we want.

When Giannis went out, our offense and defensive have exploded

I did think we did a better job walling off Giannis as the game went along, but it's irritating he's getting so many calls when he's initiating the contact.

We actually didn't shoot very well from 3pt, but Mitchell managed to wear out his own path to the charity stripe and we actually scored 7 more points on free throws than the Bucks.

The ability to get to the line cannot be underestimated in a playoff context. LeBron's career game .vs. the Piston's may have had a different ending because Billups almost matched James bucket for bucket primarily by drawing fouls.

We can't count on the Bucks turning the ball over like that, and they showed again defensively they can give our guards a lot of grief when they turn up the on the ball pressure. They'll need to learn how to overcome that.

It just felt like the Cavs had more quality players on the floor ... basically our Core 4 .vs. Giannis, which was of course amplified when he rested.

I was most surprised that the Bucks shot a similar amount of threes on higher efficiency and we still won. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to get the paint, but we ended with 54 points in the paint to Milwaukee’s 46.

Maybe there is some stock in letting Giannis have his and not overreacting when he has the ball so there are no huge openings on doubles. They shot above average on three, but they couldn’t get anything going in the paint besides Giannis and a few Brook post ups. We played Giannis mainly one-on-one with either Allen or Mobley guarding and making sure to build a wall when he had a head of steam, but there weren’t mainly doubles (I can remember a few when he was posted up).

What Giannis scored in the paint, though, was pretty significant.

The Bucks are a major hurdle for a young team much like the Pistons were for the Cavs in the early 2000's - and there's a learning process we simply we have to go through. Fortunately, we have our own wrecking ball in Mitchell and a lot more talent around him than LeBron had.