The Cleveland Cavaliers will eye their best start to a season in almost five decades when they visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night.
By beating the visiting Orlando Magic 120-109 on Friday, the Cavaliers enter the second leg of their back-to-back set armed with a 6-0 record, their finest since 2016-17, when LeBron James and Cleveland started 6-0.
Another win would leave the Cavaliers just one short of tying the long-standing, all-time franchise mark of 8-0, set in 1976-77 by the Bill Fitch-coached, Austin Carr- and Campy Russell-led team.
One of the NBA’s premier defensive outfits last season, Cleveland has taken its offense to a different level under new coach Kenny Atkinson.
The Cavs posted 130-plus points four times in 2023-24; this season they have passed that threshold three times.
Atkinson’s players are shooting a super-efficient 53.3 percent from the field and 40.8 percent from 3-point range.
Guards Darius Garland (25 points in 29 minutes) and Donovan Mitchell (22 points in 22 minutes) led Cleveland’s scoring vs. Orlando despite both having foul troubles, while forward Evan Mobley registered a double-double.
“(We’re) extremely confident,” Mitchell said. “But at the end of the day, it’s just a six-game stretch.
“It’s always great to learn through wins rather than losses, but for us it’s (about) continuing to form good habits and be who we are.”
The Bucks, who had one more win than the Cavaliers last season, are trending in the opposite direction, having dropped their past four games, capped by a 122-99 blowout road loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday.
Milwaukee misfired at 9-of-42 from long range, took a 56-38 pounding on the glass and, most worryingly, continued to leak downhill buckets.
“The defensive transition was still awful tonight, and that’s on me,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “Too many times they ran behind us. That just can’t happen.
“Everything is on me until we get it right. We’ve got to fix this. “It’s (about) discipline. Period. And at some point there has to be consequences for it.”
River said he needs to improve.
“Again, I keep going back to me. If there’s something they’re not hearing, that i’m telling them, then I’ve got to do a better job.”
Superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo maintained his MVP-caliber form, complementing 37 points on 17-of-22 shooting with 11 rebounds, but Damian Lillard, the other member of Milwaukee’s marquee tandem, endured an abysmal night.
He scored four points, connecting on 1 of 12 shots from the floor, while watching his counterpart, Ja Morant, compile a triple-double.
Lillard and fellow starters Gary Trent Jr. and Taurean Prince missed 18 of their combined 19 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc.
The Bucks will need Lillard to bounce back from his rare letdown in Memphis, as they still lack a viable third scoring option, a situation exacerbated by Khris Middleton’s absence with an ankle injury.
No Milwaukee player other than Antetokounmpo or Lillard has topped 16 points this season.
The bigger issue, though, remains at the other end.
“Defensively, it’s all about effort,” Antetokouunmpo said. “Right now, at times there’s effort and at times there is not. If there’s no effort, you’re going to be horrible.”
