After never losing against Central Division opponents with Giannis Antetokounmpo in the lineup for a long, long time, the Milwaukee Bucks have dropped two in the past month following their 115-99 loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Bucks went cold from behind the arc, ending just 9-32 while the Cavs rocketed to 19-42.
The Bucks came out blazing, launching themselves into a 35-26 lead after one. As they are wont to do though, the antlers fell off for Milwaukee in the second quarter as they went frigid from the field while Cleveland pulled ahead 65-57 by half behind a 39-point outburst. That pouring on continued in the third, as the Bucks just couldn’t corral the Cavs en route to trailing 95-77 entering the final period. Milwaukee could never narrow the gap as Cleveland pulled out a win and moved up in the standings. The Bucks are back in action on Friday against the Knicks.
Stat that Stood Out
It wasn’t just that the Bucks had 19 turnovers in this game, which is of course quite awful, but it was the fact they let Cleveland absolutely feast off those turnovers that proved the difference in this one. The Cavs scored 31 points off those turnovers compared to the Bucks 12 points off 13 Cleveland turnovers. If I had to guess, I’d say that 31 figure is an opponent high for the Bucks this season. Seven of those turnovers came from Giannis too, so plenty to clean up all around.