The Milwaukee Bucks pulled off a dramatic victory in the final seconds over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kevin Porter Jr. once again led the Bucks’ offense with 20 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, and five steals. Jarrett Allen finished with a 27-point and 11-rebound double-double for Cleveland, while Dennis Schröder had 26 points and five assists.
Game Recap
Despite both teams coming off a SEGABABA, the Cavs looked fresher early. Cleveland built a seven-point lead after old friend Sam Merrill
drilled a three, prompting a timeout from Doc Rivers. Milwaukee steadied the ship after that pause, as they battled back to move ahead after Bobby Portis converted from beyond the arc with 3:47 left. Cam Thomas turned it on, putting up seven straight points for Milwaukee to keep them ahead in a tight game. Cleveland countered with Craig Porter Jr., who completed a three-point play with four seconds left to tie it up after one, 33-33.
Merrill continued to punish the Bucks in the opening minutes of the frame, as he scored six of the first nine for the Cavs. Down six, the Bucks responded to pull even with a dunk fest, as Jericho Sims, KPJ, and Myles Turner each threw one down. Fresh off an impressive 32-point performance last night for Milwaukee, Porter started to cook. He went on a personal 6-0 run and, with his second dunk of the quarter, put the Bucks back in front. Bucks irritant Dennis Schröder found his groove late, scoring five in a row to shift the advantage back to the Cavaliers by three. Milwaukee had a chance to take the lead at the buzzer after a Ryan Rollins layup, but Kuzma’s three ball missed, so the Bucks entered halftime down 63-62.
Milwaukee began the second half on a heater, going on an 11-0 run. Kuzma, who came into the game shooting 32.5% from three-point range, drilled back-to-back from the corner. KPJ continued to add to his highlight reel with a poster dunk over Jarrett Allen. A Rollins three-pointer put the Bucks up by 12, but the Cavs responded right away with a 10-0 run with 3:19 on the clock. Milwaukee clung onto the advantage for as long as possible, but a Schröder layup with 4.7 left put Cleveland in the driver’s seat entering the fourth, 94-93.
The Bucks’ offense remained in neutral, as they failed to score a field goal from the 2:21 mark of the third to the 8:31 mark in the fourth, when KPJ scored a layup. Thankfully for Milwaukee’s sake, Cleveland had a hard time finding the bottom of the basket, as they were only able to go ahead by two. After BP knotted things back up, Green put the Bucks back in front with a three, which was followed by an alley-oop dunk from Sims. Schorder tied it with a pair of free throws with 2:40 left. Rollins came up clutch with two straight layups, giving Milwaukee a four-point lead with 1:45 to go. The Bucks couldn’t find that next basket to go up by three possessions, as Jaylon Tyson converted two from the charity stripe and Schröder drew the game even once again. KPJ once again played hero late, as he buried a mid-range jumper with 20 seconds left. The Cavs thought Allen tied the game after putting a Schröder miss back up, but after review, the basket was waived off, and the Bucks escaped.
Stat That Stood Out
The Cavaliers shot 20/27 from the free-throw line and missed three in the fourth quarter. In a game decided by two points, Cleveland would love to have some of those shots at the charity stripe back.
