Coming off of an NBA Cup title, the Milwaukee Bucks are set to re-emerge on the road against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night.
The Bucks spent much of the last week in Las Vegas, defeating the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Cup semifinals on Saturday before handling the Oklahoma City Thunder 97-81 on Tuesday to secure the second ever NBA Cup.
Giannis Antetokounmpo earned NBA Cup MVP honors with a triple-double of 26 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists in the championship game. Damian Lillard added 23 points for Milwaukee.
“It’s great for our team. We’re playing good basketball, we trust in one another,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’m so proud of this group. Most importantly, we were competing defensively. Job’s not done. We have a lot of basketball in front of us.”
Cleveland had a mini-break with the NBA Cup scheduling and has been off since Monday when it dominated Brooklyn 130-101 in New York. The only negative in the victory was a shoulder injury to forward Isaac Okoro that will keep him out for at least two weeks.
The victory was a team effort for Cleveland with seven players scoring at least 11 points, led by Evan Mobley’s 21.
“Sometimes with all the 3-point shooting in this league you forget all the activity you need to contest,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said regarding his defense bouncing back from some struggles. “I think we got back to turning teams over, that was a point of emphasis, getting more physical.”
Antetokounmpo leads the NBA with 32.7 points per game while also leading Milwaukee with 11.5 rebounds. Lillard leads the team with 7.5 assists.
Donovan Mitchell leads Cleveland with 23.3 points and 1.6 steals per game. Darius Garland isn’t far behind at 20.3 points and leads the team with 6.5 assists per game.
On the injury front, Milwaukee was without Khris Middleton against OKC due to illness and not the ankle injury that delayed his start to this NBA season.
Cleveland’s injury report is busier. In addition to Okoro, Craig Porter Jr. (ankle sprain), Jaylon Tyson (illness) and Max Strus (ankle) all missed Monday’s game. Strus was a full-go at practice Wednesday.
Cleveland has won three games in a row over Milwaukee dating back to last season. The teams played back-to-back games Nov. 2 and 4, with those games decided by one and two points respectively. Antetokounmpo did not play in the second game.
Lillard scored 41 and 36 points in the two games respectively to keep Milwaukee in those contests. The losses were the final two in the Bucks’ six-game losing streak early in the season that followed their opening-night win.
The four-game season series between the teams has been split the last two seasons.
Milwaukee can score too. The Bucks have moved up to third in the league in 3-point percentage (38.9) and lead the NBA in that category over the last 15 games (41.0).
The Bucks’ Taurean Prince and AJ Green rank first and six in 3-point shooting heading into Thursday’s play at 51.6 percent and 47.6 percent respectively.
