Cavs vs. Bucks

Pregame

Starting lineups

Bucks: Mo Williams, Michael Redd, Desmond Mason, Yi Jianlian, Andrew Bogut
Cavs: Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic, LeBron James, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Officials
Jim Clark, Bennie Adams, Tommy Nunez

–The Cavs only reserve big man right now is Dwayne Jones with Cedric Simmons out with another left ankly injury. The Bucks have a good big man rotation with energy man Dan Gadzuric and Charlie Villaneuva coming off the bench. Keep an eye on that.
–Desmond Mason has developed a bit of a rep as one of the guys in the league who does a good job on LeBron on defense. Let’s see how he handles him tonight when he’s hot and rested.
–The Bucks have not been scoring very well in the early season and the Cavs spent their three off days working on defense. Of course, Williams will be everything Gibson can handle and Redd can go for 40 if he’s hot from the outside.
–Eric Snow is back and available, but he’s probably not in the rotation. That is unless Charlie Bell, Redd or Williams gets going, then watch how fast Mike Brown tries his defensive stopper.
–Drew Gooden has always seemed to play well against the Bucks. Now he’s got a new opposite number in Yi Jianlian. Drew is stronger than Yi, we’ll see if he can take advantage.

Halftime — Cavs 53, Bucks 49

–Cavs had a 14-point lead and then got lazy and it showed as they turned the ball over seven times in the second quarter which led to — prepare — 14 points. Also, Cavs are being beat on second chance points. Cavs are effort challenged at the moment.
–Royal “with Cheese” Ivey has 11 points off the bench. Enough said.
–LeBron can get to the basket whenever he wants, we’ll see how much he goes. The Bucks have been bringing doubles and then backing off and he’s attacked when they’ve backed off. We’ll see if Milwaukee sticks to that plan.
–Early in the game the Cavs were posting up a bunch and then they went away from it. The Bucks outscored them in the paint and at the line in the first half. Cavs can’t win that way.
–I thought Drew Gooden’s attempt at being a point guard on that one possession worked out just fine.
–Ira Newble has his moments out there, but he sure seems to get beat on a lot of rebounds, too.

Postgame — Bucks 111, Cavs 107

Stars

Michael Redd, 34 points, 20-of-25 free throws, seven assists
LeBron, 24 points, seven assists, seven rebounds
Mo Williams, 20 points, nine assists
Daniel Gibson, 26 points, 5-of-8 on 3s

–Bucks played very well, they must be given credit first off. They worked their game plan well and took advantage of the way the officials were calling the game by using drives to get fouls and free points.
–Now that’s out of the way, the Cavs’ defense is just flat out not getting it done. There is no reason to talk about the offense right now. It’s doing its job and then some. Coming into this game, the Bucks were averaging 89 points and shooting 41 percent from the field on the road. Tonight they get 111 and shot 48 percent. And that was after a 5-of-17 start.
–Redd was great in the third quarter but he made contested shots. That spurt did not decide the game. It was Redd driving and the Cavs reaching in and being slow to rotate that made a difference. Mo Williams drove through the lane a couple of times and went around three guys.
–In their six losses the Cavs are giving up 108 points and 48 percent shooting. That is why they are 5-6. Not because of injuries or holdouts. This team needs to play defense to win, even more so than getting great performances from LeBron, which he had tonight.
–Royal Ivey had 10 points this season until tonight, when he had 15.
–Bucks had more rebounds, scored 15 more points off turnovers, had more fastbreak points, more second chance points and a load more bench points. Amazing the Cavs just lost by four.
–Speaking of injuries, Donyell Marshall is out another eight weeks. The team announced it after the game, which is quite shady to say the least. And they announced it quite poorly. Here is the press release, word for word:

“Cavaliers forward Donyell Marshall today completed a period of additional examination and evaluation for his sprained right wrist. The initial treatment of rest and immobilization for 7-10 days was step one and has been completed. After additional opinions and evaluations were gained, step two started today with a cortisone shot to the impacted area of his wrist. A period of further immobilization, and then rehab to promote healing and resolution of his symptoms, will now commence. It is estimated that the complete treatment and rehab process will take 6-8 weeks starting today. Donyell will be listed as Out during that time period and his status will be updated as appropriate.”

Talk about burying the lead. This is semi-NBA standard, I remember the release from the Suns when Amare Stoudemire had knee surgery and the word “microfracture” was in the last paragraph. I will now commence to make a comment about the promotion of healing and resolution of symptoms. The Cavs are going to need another big man and sooner rather than later. Ira Newble played 26 minutes and had just two rebounds. He’s fighting but he can’t do it night in and night out against so many bigger bodies.

Quotes:

Mike Brown: “107 points and shooting 47 percent from the field should be good enough for us to win any basketball game we play. We’ve got to figure out what our identity is.”
LeBron: “We know what we need to do defensively, we have to continue to get better and figure some things out.”