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Key: On the Road Again
Both squads in Friday night’s Central Division matchup are coming off interesting openers against the Boston Celtics.
After Gordon Hayward’s gruesome injury sent shock waves through The Q, Cleveland weathered a second-half Celtics comeback to win their home opener for the fourth time in the last five tries. Five Cavaliers scored in double-figures, led by LeBron James, who finished with a game-high 29 points and 16 boards – going 12-of-19 from the floor, adding a team-high nine assists and a pair of blocked shots.
Kyrie Irving was roundly booed and the Wine & Gold used a 7-1 run over the final two minutes for the win. The Bucks got a huge fourth-quarter performance from the Greek Freak to send the Celtics to 0-2, dropping Boston in the C's home opener on Wednesday night.
The Cavs dropped their first meeting with Milwaukee last year, but took the final three and have won nine of 12 since LeBron’s return.
The Bucks made almost no changes to their roster over the offseason; the Cavaliers have undergone an overhaul. Milwaukee is ready to make a serious leap under Jason Kidd’s leadership. The Cavs are ready to show them who the Division’s alpha dogs actually are.
Key: Freak Out!
Even at age 32, LeBron James is still widely-regarded as the planet’s best basketball player. He finished outside the top three in last year’s MVP voting, but his postseason performance reaffirmed his rightful place on the throne.
And although Giannis Antetokounmpo wasn’t one of those three players that superseded Number 23 in the MVP voting, he’ll almost certainly be in the running starting this season and into the foreseeable future.
After leading the Bucks in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks last season, the Greek Freak – who turns 23 in December – took home the NBA’s Most Improved Player award last season.
On Wednesday night, he notched 16 of his game-high 37 points in the fourth quarter as Milwaukee dropped Boston, 108-100.
The Freak was tremendous, but he’s not in King James’ strata just yet. In Tuesday’s opening night win over Boston, James led all scorers with 29 points and rebounders with 16 boards. He’s gone 9-3 against Milwaukee since coming back to Cleveland – 4-2 in Wisconsin – averaging 26.5 points, 8.7 boards and 6.5 assists per.
Key: Bench Mob
Tuesday’s opener was definitely the debut of a new-look Cavaliers team – with two starters (Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith) from last year’s team coming off the bench and Kevin Love at the 5.
Swish finished with 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting and Thompson added five points, six boards and a pair of assists. Shump chipped in with four points while primarily checking Kyrie in the second half and Jeff Green finished with six. Kyle Korver went scoreless and Jose Calderon didn’t see action.
With a back-to-back pending this weekend, Tyronn Lue will dip back into his bench this weekend, likely with Calderon seeing some action after Derrick Rose logged 31 minutes on Tuesday.
The story of Milwaukee’s second unit on Wednesday night was our old friend, Matthew Dellavedova, who hit the game-deciding triple with 44 seconds to play. Delly finished with 15 points, going 2-of-4 from long-range and 5-of-5 from the line.
Greg Monroe added 10 points and John Henson had all four of Milwaukee’s blocked shots.
Key: Serious Sophomore
Nobody knew much about Malcom Brogdon last November when he went 4-of-5 from the floor, including 2-of-2 from deep, to go with three assists and a steal. By the time Cleveland faced the Bucks for the fourth time in February, Brogdon was already a viable Rookie of the Year candidate, erupting for 20 points and five assists off the bench.
The eventual winner as the league’s top freshman, Brogdon got off to a good start on Wednesday night, notching 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-5 from long-range.
He’ll square off against a veteran of myriad Central Division wars, Derrick Rose, who was solid in his Cavaliers debut – finishing with 14 points, four boards and a pair of assists. Rose’s triple to end the third quarter turned out to be a big momentum swing in Tuesday night’s win over Boston.
Jose Calderon didn’t see the floor against the Celtics, with Dwyane Wade, LeBron and Iman Shumpert doing most of the ball-handling with Rose on the bench. But he’ll likely see some time this weekend.
Key: Middle Man
At any position, Kevin Love is a double-double machine and he got off to his standard start in the opener against Boston – netting 15 points and 11 boards despite not shooting the ball particularly well. Love only canned one three-pointer in the win, but it was the biggest bomb of the night – a splashdown with 46 seconds to play that put Cleveland up four and capped a 7-0 run.
Tuesday’s double-double was the 371st of Love’s illustrious career and he’s piled up 13 of them in 17 career meetings with Milwaukee. He only faced the Bucks once last season – the late November loss – but the four-time All-Star still did his thing, notching 13 points and 13 boards.
Like the current Cavaliers, the Bucks are almost a position-less team, with second-year man, Thon Maker, as their starting center. Maker is a defensive star-in-the-making, but he’s limited offensively, finishing with just two points in Wednesday’s win.
Greg Monroe is more of a traditional big man, and he’ll have his hands full primarily with Tristan Thompson, who was rock-solid in Tuesday’s opener at The Q.