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| 14/15 NBA Preseason | ||
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| October 14, 2014 | ||
| Quicken Loans Arena | Cleveland, OH | ||
| 6:00 CT | ||
| NBA TV | 620 WTMJ / Audio League Pass | ||
| Probable Starters | ||
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | PG | Matthew Dellavedova |
| Khris Middleton | SG | Dion Waiters |
| Jabari Parker | SF | Mike Miller (?) |
| Ersan Ilyasova | PF | Kevin Love |
| Zaza Pachulia | C | Tristan Thompson |
On the Cavaliers: Fear the Sword | Cavs the Blog | Waiting for Next Year
No LeBron or Kyrie. While the Bucks were last seen losing to the Bulls in Milwaukee on Saturday night, the Cavs spent their weekend in a slightly more exotic location: Rio De Janeiro. Despite a short and mediocre-by-his-standards night from LeBron James (7 points, 8 assists in 20 minutes), the Cavs hung on to defeat the Miami Heat 122-119 in overtime as Kevin Love scored 25 points on 12 shots and Tristan Thompson added 18/9 off the bench. And hey, five minutes of free basketball for the good people of Brazil!
Returning home tonight, the Cavs will have a decidedly preseason look with LeBron getting a night off and Kyrie Irving expected to miss his second straight game with a sprained ankle. In other words, Kevin Love will be the man for the Cavs and Dion Waiters will have the green light to take a bunch of contested long twos.
Point Giannis. The Bucks will also be shorthanded with Brandon Knight (groin) and Larry Sanders (illness) not making the trip to Ohio, though the upside is that we get to see the cool weirdness of Giannis Antetokounmpo starting at point guard for the first time in his NBA career. Nate Wolters (ankle) did make the trip after missing Saturday's game, so along with Kendall Marshall and Jerryd Bayless the Bucks do have other, more traditional options they could run with at the point.
Still, Jason Kidd has made no bones about his intentions to experiment during the preseason, and nothing would seem quite as experimental as starting a 6'11" 19-year-old at the point. I still doubt we'll see Giannis getting regular minutes as a true point guard once the regular season rolls around, but Antetokounmpo did some encouraging things while running the offense in the fourth quarter on Sunday, and anything that gives him more chances to make plays should benefit him in the long run.