PG Cavs - Bucks Survive

[RiotPunch]

Almost posted this at halftime, but still applies ie our defensive scheme.

Strong 3rd quarter, Giannis was beasting and Dame was clutch AF.

[FlagsFlyForever]

Beasley is a robot.

[mediocrityrules]

Beasley is a robot.

Giannis just gets Beasley so much space in that corner. Every game Beas has at least one shot from there where he has time to stop, pause, breathe, and then take the shot. Best of all, when that happens i have zero doubt that he misses.

[CharityStripe34]

I like that Strus had so many shots, and that while Allen and Mitchell scored heavily, keeping Niang, Strus and Levert down means they were forced to do a lot more. I feel like our past D gives one of those guys a 15 point outing from deep.

Agree. Teams can no longer beat us with outlier games.

They missed loads of good looks though. I’d be interested to see their shot quality as it felt better than the average.

From what I remember in the arena Strus and Niang had some solid looks that they just bricked. Cavs fans were groaning hard in the second half. But most of their team turned down the paint during that stretch as well. Which explains the FT disparity.

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[fan230]

Allen was really on one. I don't know what the Bucks could have really done besides late doubles. Brook was contesting him but he was just shooting right over the top of him.

Our defensive scheme and our players’ abilities in the perimeter are permitting the offense to take these shots over Brook in varying ways such as floaters. This is what teams have figured out over the last 4 games. We are unable to stop the teams from scoring in this way.

I don’t understand why the defensive specialist Ag does not try to counter this by changing the defensive scheme in some way or perhaps he has tried but failed. This is not a good sign at all as it is hard for the Bucks to get better defensive players.

Something badly needs to be done to improve the defense.

We lost 3 defensive specialists in Jrue, Jevon and Wes. Replacements are Dame, Cam and Marjon/ajj/aj, all noticeably inferior defensive players. No wonder our defense has dropped in hat we cannot stop any team from scoring heavily. Maybe Jae will help.

[fan230]

We will need Brook against players like Embiid or Jokic.

We need Jrue badly, as we don’t have Jevon or Wes; unfortunately that ship has sailed. I didn’t realize the degree of defensive drop off that would happen primarily because of no Jrue and supplemented by no Jevon and no Wes and to a degree, no Hill like player.

[tedbrogen]

I'm glad we won but I just can't help but be underwhelmed when we outshot them 41%-14% from 3 & they were without Garland & Mobley. But hey an ugly win is better than a pretty loss

Regression to the mean for Max against the Bucks was most of that. He was a hilarious 2-11 from three.

[fan230]

Before Jrue, we had Eric Bledsoe as our pg who was also a strong defender; I remember how he shut down Harden at his peak. The sg was Brogdon and Hill was good too, balanced and good both in offense and defense. Today Dame, Malik, Cam are all weak defenders but good in offense. No wonder our defense is so much worse than before.

[tedbrogen]

Why does everyone think Jrue would help this team so much? He got hilariously cooked by Jimmy just last postseason, and the Bucks would have still won if they had either run Midds/Brook PnR down the stretch in games 4 and 5, or if they had, you know, one of the best closers in the NBA, Dame, available to them.

[tedbrogen]

Before Jrue, we had Eric Bledsoe as our pg who was also a strong defender; I remember how he shut down Harden at his peak. The sg was Brogdon and Hill was good too, balanced and good both in offense and defense. Today Dame, Malik, Cam are all weak defenders but good in offense. No wonder our defense is so much worse than before.

It also why the offense is so much better and can score 120 to 130 with ease.

[fan230]

Maybe we should start pat c instead of Malik. Pat is worse than Beas in offense but better on defense. It is worth experimenting with this, till Jae returns.

[mediocrityrules]

Maybe we should start pat c instead of Malik. Pat is worse than Beas in offense but better on defense. It is worth experimenting with this, till Jae returns.

Our starting five is fine. Our real issue is that time in the 2nd and 4th quarters when neither of Giannis nor Dame is on the floor. If Cam Payne is having one of his pube games, things go south very quickly.

[RiotPunch]

We will need Brook against players like Embiid or Jokic.

We need Jrue badly, as we don’t have Jevon or Wes; unfortunately that ship has sailed. I didn’t realize the degree of defensive drop off that would happen primarily because of no Jrue and supplemented by no Jevon and no Wes and to a degree, no Hill like player.

There is some drop off defensively in losing Jrue, but compounded by Griff's defensive scheme. It really shouldn't be this bad.

[randy84]

Maybe we should start pat c instead of Malik. Pat is worse than Beas in offense but better on defense. It is worth experimenting with this, till Jae returns.

Our starting five is fine. Our real issue is that time in the 2nd and 4th quarters when neither of Giannis nor Dame is on the floor. If Cam Payne is having one of his pube games, things go south very quickly.

I would like to add a bench scorer. Someone who can get their own shot. Too much inconsistency from the bench guys. Portis is the only one that can put up points.

[ShootingtheJ]

Agree. Teams can no longer beat us with outlier games.

They missed loads of good looks though. I’d be interested to see their shot quality as it felt better than the average.

From what I remember in the arena Strus and Niang had some solid looks that they just bricked. Cavs fans were groaning hard in the second half. But most of their team turned down the paint during that stretch as well. Which explains the FT disparity.

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Also, the Cavs are a terrible 3 point shooting team without Garland.

[greekbuck34]

Giannis misses dunk, Allen makes jumpshots off the board, defense looks terrible, offense looks shaky, turnovers leading to open layups and the Bucks down by double digits.

Yeah we have no chance tonight onto the next one...

10 minutes later....

Bucks lead by 15 points...

[ShootingtheJ]

I'm glad we won but I just can't help but be underwhelmed when we outshot them 41%-14% from 3 & they were without Garland & Mobley. But hey an ugly win is better than a pretty loss

Regression to the mean for Max against the Bucks was most of that. He was a hilarious 2-11 from three.

He's shooting just 34% from 3 on the season.

The Cavs should go all out for a shooter, but they're up against the tax. You know who's be perfect for them? Beasley.

[fan230]

Beas can be the additional bench scorer. Pat can start instead and provide better defense than Beas for the starters. Right now both our starting guards are weak defenders; that will change. With Khris, Dame and Giannis we will have enormous scoring power for our starters.

Once Jae returns, he can start and Pat can join the bench.

I cannot think of a better solution.

[Jez2983]

Got away with that one. Hopefully we learn the right lessons....

I like that Strus had so many shots, and that while Allen and Mitchell scored heavily, keeping Niang, Strus and Levert down means they were forced to do a lot more. I feel like our past D gives one of those guys a 15 point outing from deep.

Not really sure we did anything for those guys to do nothing from three today though.

My point was that those were the guys you wanted taking shots, and they aren't particularly good shooters, this season at least.

[PG Graveyard]

Sputtering Bucks win 3 out of 4 on road trip now 24-8 and up to 23rd on Bill Simmons power rankings