Cavaliers bomb Bucks 115-99

 Kevin Love scored 25 points off the bench and Cedi Osman popped in 23 from the second unit as the Cleveland Cavaliers overcame an awful start to overwhelm the defending world champion Milwaukee Bucks 115-99 at Rocket City Field House in Cleveland.

Cleveland trailed by as many as fifteen in the first quarter and was fortunate to trail by only nine at the end of the quarter.

Cleveland would outscore Milwaukee by seventeen in the second and ten in the third and cruised to the win whereafter.

Cleveland's win was their third in a row and eighth in their last nine games.

The Cavaliers are off until Sunday when they travel to Detroit to play the Pistons.

Swashbucklings

1) Cleveland allowed Milwaukee to connect on six three-pointers in the first quarter and only three others in the final three.

Milwaukee lives and dies with the three-pointer and their bombs rarely hit their target/

2) Cleveland's hit nineteen three's on the game and seven came in the third quarter as the Cavaliers swallowed up their first-period deficit and blew by them in the second quarter.

3) The NBA game has evolved a great deal with the three pointer playing such a larger role in today's game and this game shows how when a team drills nineteen three-pointers and it really isn't all that unusual.

4) Darius Garland left the game with back spasms but did return after missing a few minutes.

Those few minutes likely cost Garland another double-double after finishing with nineteen points and eight assists in twenty-six minutes.

5) Kevin Love had been a target for many (including myself) over the last two years for lack of effort, a massive contract ( which still doesn't get off the books until after 2022-23 ), and an attitude that threatened to infect a young team in the locker room.

This season has been entirely different in play and attitude for Love, who initially appeared to resist being used off the bench as an offensive force.

Instead, it might have saved his career.

6) Cedi Osman can be streaky and both good and bad can come from that.

Osman was six of fourteen from three-point range in the win finishing with twenty-three points.

Osman had combined for twelve points in his previous three games.

7) The win moved the Cavaliers to fourth in the Eastern Conference and their thirty wins pulled them even with the three teams ahead, although playing more games to reach the number than the other teams.