Cavaliers vs. Bucks Final Score: Cleveland Falls Flat In Milwaukee

The Cleveland Cavaliers came out pretty flat against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night. While the Bucks were the team going through a transitional period, the Cavs looked like the ones who were lost out there. In the end, it culminated in a 115-105 loss and sent the Cavs to 16-25 on the season.

Cavs Leaders: Points: Irving, 28; Rebounds: Jamison, Gee, 5; Assists: Sessions, 6

Quick Thoughts:

Energy level was low. The Cavs just didn't look they were into this game, really. The effort on defense was particularly disappointing as they allowed the Bucks to score seemingly at will in the paint. Milwaukee scored 58 points in the paint overall and out-rebounded the Cavs 49-34. When you look at those numbers, you see a team that A) has its frontline totally depleted and B) a team that wasn't really trying too hard.

Kind of a cool note here: Milwaukee set the NBA season-high for assists in a game (this yea) with 38. Their ball movement was quite impressive and their assist to turnover ratio was pretty awesome. 38 assists to just 15 turnovers while the Cavs had just 21 assists to their 14 turnovers. Kyrie Irving had 8 turnovers for the Cavs, but I swear it wasn't that many. I'll have to go back and watch them, but I feel like sometimes Irving throws a pass to Ryan Hollins that isn't a bad pass, but then Hollins just drops it. Since Hollins never really had possession of it, the turnover sometimes goes to Irving. Furthermore, Kyrie gets called for an awful lot of questionable charges. Once he becomes more of a legitimate superstar in this league, he'll get the benefit of the doubt and those calls will go in his favor.

I'm not going to panic yet, but Tristan Thompson has been pretty "meh" in recent games. He had just 5 points and 4 rebounds in 21 minutes on Wednesday and seems to be hitting a funk. We'll see if he can push through this rough patch and get his game back on track.

Ryan Hollins is terrible. He's so bad. I cannot stand him. That is all.

Alonzo Gee had a freakin awesome game. He scored 19 points on a wide array of shots. He's got that nice flat-floater working and seems to have really improved his midrange game. His spin move that he uses to get to the rack is really smooth. He also had 4 steals, 5 rebounds and 3 assists -- just a really solid all around game. He's been great since joining the starting lineup.

Shoot it, Boobie! Daniel Gibson had one of his best games of the season, scoring 18 points and shooting 5 of 8 from downtown. I had the Bucks' TV feed for this game and kept hearing their announcers say "That kid can stroke it, you've GOT to cover him". The Bucks never really did. He kept getting open looks and knocking them down.

Drew Gooden had a triple-double...what the heck? He had one LAST year against the Cavs as well. Drew freakin' Gooden. Jeez.

Fear The Sword's Player Of The Game:

I already talked about his turnovers, but regardless, this goes to Kyrie Irving. He scored 28 points on 11 of 16 shooting and it probably should have been more if he had some whistles go his way. It was nice to see him penetrating and finishing at the rim again after his mini-slump of three straight sub-50% shooting games. He played just 29 minutes and wasn't quite able to lead his usual, furious 4th quarter charge. Regardless, he was the Cavs' best player on Wednesday night.