Milwaukee Bucks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers Preview: Bucks Look to Bounce Back

Honestly I am pretty glad the Milwaukee Bucks are not playing the Atlanta Hawks. No disrespect to them as they are a good team, but it’s similar to having the same food over and over. It’s not bad the first time, but you do get sick of it. Anyway, the Bucks will face divison foe Cleveland Cavaliers at the Fiserv Forum tonight.

Where We’re At

If you look at the last five games, one would say the Bucks are in a slump. Granted, with context, two of those games didn’t feature Jrue Holiday and one didn’t have Giannis Antetokounmpo, and two of those losses were to the Hawks. The Bucks still boast one of the best defenses, net rating, and overall record in the league so things are not THAT dire. As Milwaukee starts to get healthy again, the results should also improve as well and good news is Pat Connaughton looks to be getting closer to his season debut.

Meanwhile Cleveland is off to a good start. The trade for Donovan Mitchell in the summer has been a boost for their offense as he is averaging 31.6 points per game and 6.1 assists. Darius Garland just scored 51 points in his last game and the frontcourt is TALL with Jarrett Allen, Evan Mobley and Kevin Love roaming around. It hasn’t been very pretty lately though as the Cavs had their west coast road trip and lost all three of their games before losing at home this past Sunday against the Timberwolves. The Cavs also have some injury issues as Jarrett Allen and Donovan Mitchell are both day-to-day with ankle injuries.

Player to Watch

Jordan Nwora has been awful and for someone that somehow get a new contract, he is running out of chances to try and impress the coaching staff for playing time. With wing options like Connaughton, Middleton and Ingles getting closer to full health and MarJon Beauchamp is showing more flashes, Nwora’s relevance is cratering more than it already had. The bar is in the core of the earth.