The Milwaukee Bucks couldn’t topple the might Cleveland Cavaliers for the second time in a week on Thursday – but don’t blame Giannis Antetokounmpo. At one point in the third quarter the Hawks deficit was 26 points, but a couple of second-half runs cut the Cavaliers lead down into the teens. Mozgov was injured in that contest, meaning Tristan Thompson or Anderson Varejao will move into Saturday’s lineup. Mozgov could miss the next two weeks with a strained shoulder while Williams will miss his second straight with a sore right ankle.
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The Cavaliers played their first “Hardwood Classics” game Thursday night and, in keeping with the popular team theme song from 40 years ago, made it happen. “The main thing is to stay ready and I was able to help the team”. Here are four observations from Saturday’s game. Kyrie Irving (fractured left kneecap) and Iman Shumpert (right wrist surgery) have yet to play this season. He scored nine points with a career-high five assists…
“We just couldn’t find a way to stabilize ourselves”, coach Scott Skiles said. “I’m starting to focus in on those shots”.
Nene scored 18 points and Otto Porter added 17 for Washington. James scored six points and Love had a three-point play in that stretch. “But they’re not a better team than us, and not on your home floor”.
“I didn’t get a lot, really”, Budenholzer said when asked if he was given an explanation for being tossed.
The Cavs maintained a 63-48 lead at the half before almost giving it all back. The report goes on to say that LeBron tied the game back up, 2 to 2, before they agreed to end it. Aaron Gordon, Tobias Harris and Elfrid Peyton have shown a ton of promise this year and they’ve given a lot of quality teams all they can handle this season even if it didn’t always result in a win. I think I was very close to him and that seems like it maybe could be the reason why he threw me out after just a single technical.
Blatt praised the four-time MVP for showing leadership.
But there are bad habits developing that they want to squash now rather than later.
“This is how we need to play”, James said. “I understand his frustration, but obviously, you shouldn’t do that”. You can’t blame the guy for wanting a break from time to time.
Karl-Anthony Towns, the league’s seventh-best rebounder, had 12 points and nine rebounds for Minnesota. Similarly, they’re allowing just 93.2 points in wins compared with 110.5 points in losses….
Thompson became the fourth Cavs player whose consecutive games streak reached the 300s and trails only Jim Chones (361), Austin Carr (351) and Danny Ferry (301) for the all-time franchise mark.
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While Fill-in starter Matthew Dellevadova and J.R. Smith rounded out the Cavs’ contingent to appear in twin figures.
