The Milwaukee Bucks lost badly, 136-11, to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Halloween. For three of four quarters, the Bucks played decently, but losing the second by [checks notes] 27 points cooked their goose. Milwaukee just couldn’t get shots to fall, and although Cleveland’s defence was solid, I thought the Bucks got decent looks. Still, there were certainly positives to take out of the game, as I’ll get to. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast,Bucks
In Six Minutes, below.
Player Grades
Ryan Rollins
25 minutes, 9 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 0 turnovers, 4/11 FG, 1/5 3P, +4
Rollins’ game looks worse on the stat sheet than it truly was. Yeah, he’s still struggling to find his own offence, but he did a solid job of distributing the ball without turning it over. It’s also not as if Rollins was shot-chucking. As I alluded to in Kasparas Jakucionis’ section, the Cavs can be really tough to figure out in terms of scoring when you’re being funnelled into two velociraptors inside. In short: it certainly wasn’t a good game by Rollins, but it also wasn’t as bad as some others he’s played this season.
Grade: C-
Tyler Herro
27 minutes, 15 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 turnovers, 5/18 FG, 4/11 3P, -19
Herro’s first stinker of the season. I thought he got some solid looks in the first half and just missed them, but in the second half, it felt like Cleveland was much more in control of his shot quality. It got to the point where Herro was trying to foul-bait to get something going. I also wasn’t in love with his body language.
Grade: D
Jaime Jaquez Jr.
23 minutes, 8 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3/8 FG, 1/2 3P , -15
Weird game for Jaquez. I thought he was solid as a defender on Harden and did his best when he had to match up with Mobley, but like a few others, he struggled to find ways to score because of Cleveland’s size.
Grade: C
Kyle Kuzma
23 minutes, 14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 6/12 FG, 2/7 3P, -16
Kuzme was excellent in the third quarter, scoring 12 of his 14 points and keeping the Cavs’ lead from getting too large. Over the whole game, I appreciated the effort Kuz showed defensively as one of the few wings who could at least try to match Mobley physically, but ultimately that made little difference.
Grade: C+
Myles Turner
23 minutes, 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 1 steal, 0 turnovers, 4/10 FG, 1/4 3P, -11
Honestly, my analysis of Turner’s game last night is similar to what I thought of the Rockets game: on balance, he was pretty solid, but his shooting struggles continue. I will say that, whether it is age or a blatant athleticism deficit, Turner just cannot score over athletic centres with any regularity anymore (even when he catches it with an advantage). Had a play where he set a good screen and caught it with a window to the rim, but when Evan Mobley rotated over, his only hope was to catapult himself into Mobley and hope for a call; he did not get the call, and promptly flung the ball onto the top of the backboard.
Grade: C
Kel’el Ware
24 minutes, 19 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 1 steal, 4 turnovers, 6/16 FG, 3/8 3P, 4/5 FT, -14
I didn’t love Ware’s game, to be honest. 13 of his 19 points came in garbage time, and he should be doing that against third units. The trend of him failing to match it with these upper-echelon bigs is somewhat concerning. Ware was just no match on either end for the Mobley-Allen combo, and if he is to be Milwaukee’s centre of the future, that needs to change.
Grade: C-
Kasparas Jakucionis
21 minutes, 5 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 turnovers, 2/7 FG, 1/4 3P, -18
After a run of good games, this was a come-down-to-earth one for Jakucionis. He did his best to knife into the lane, but the two rangy seven-footers definitely gave him trouble.
Grade: D+
Brayden Burries
20 minutes, 14 points, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 4/7 FG, 1/4 3P, 5/6 FT, -19
Obviously, the headline from Burries’ game was that insane dunk, but overall, I loved how he made stuff happen in transition. Burries really has some heft, and he knows how to use it. Also had some solid possessions guarding Donovan Mitchell, I must say.
Grade: B
AJ Green
20 minutes, 0 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 0/1 FG, 0/1 3P, -14
In games where none of Milwaukee’s guards can’t get paint touches, Green’s productivity will generally dip. He’s a play finisher, not a creator.
Grade: C-
Nate Ament
19 minutes, 14 points, 2 assists, 1 turnover, 4 PF, 6/8 FG, 2/3 3P, -11
Ament’s first efficient shooting night. He’s looking more and more comfortable with each game, especially finishing around the rim and slowing down on his three-point shots. Loved the craft he showed on the break with that Euro-step around the defender for the dunk; I’d love to see more of that moving forward.
Grade: B
Taylor Jenkins
Deciphering whether Jenkins “coached well” in these types of games is a task I find difficult for a range of reasons. First, the clear experience and talent gap between the Bucks and the NBA’s top teams; second, the fact that Milwaukee’s first priority appears to be development, then winning (which I think most fans would agree with). At the very least, we can see that Jenkins has instilled a culture where the players will keep fighting no matter how much they’re down by; that’s been shown across the last two blowouts. That said, maybe something needs to change in the game plan, rotations, etc., to prevent these second-quarter fadeouts we have seen for two straight games now (they lost the second quarter 34-14 against the Rockets). We know this is when the likes of Ware, Burries, and Ament will be getting their time, so understandably there would be somewhat of a drop-off, but maybe Jenkins needs to get one of the vets out early so they can come back and anchor these units at the start of the second. It’s a trend I’m monitoring.
Grade: C-
Limited minutes: Ousmane Dieng, Gary Trent Jr.
DNP-CD: Jericho Sims, Bogoljub Markovic, Caris LeVert,
Inactive: Kam Jones, Cormac Ryan, Pete Nance
What We Learnt
The team might have a second-quarter problem and, as I (and Jenkins) alluded to, changes in rotation and possibly even game plan might be needed.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- “Our guys played great in the first quarter, but the second quarter got away from us,” Jenkins said. “We missed open threes, we missed layups… and that had an impact on our defence. We fought in the second half, but the hole we dug ourselves in was a little too deep. So, [we will] go back and watch the film to see how we can sustain better over 48 minutes.”
- The Bucks shot 7/28 (25.0%) to the Cavs’ 18/22 (81.8%) in the second quarter. To their credit, Milwaukee did a great job winning the possession battle—largely by grabbing eight offensive rebounds—but just couldn’t get anything to go. As for Cleveland, 15 of their 18 makes were assisted, and as I mentioned in the Rapid Recap, they closed the period on a 21-3 run. Insane.
- The Bucks lost the paint battle 60-46; they did win bench points 55-51, however.
- Just a stray thought, and I don’t want this to come across the wrong way after just six games, but if I were Horst, I’d be listening (listening) to trade offers for Kel’el Ware at the deadline. His continued underperformance in these measuring-stick games concerns me. And to be clear, I’d also be content with keeping Ware, but if another team believes more in his upside and makes an enticing offer, I’d seriously consider it. Is it risky? Yeah. But it’s also his third year in the NBA after two years in college; this may be the last chance to “sell high” before a bad reputation sets in and you need to pay him.
- Brayden Burries’ incredible dunk:
- The team’s Halloween costumes, in all their glory:
Up Next
The Bucks now head to Minnesota to play the Timberwolves on Monday night. Catch the action at 7:00 p.m. CST on MY24.
