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Coming off last nights 109-101 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Cleveland Cavaliers travel home to take on the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks, despite losing rookie forward Jabari Parker for the season with a torn ACL, currently sit sixth in the Eastern Conference and are currently entrenched in the playoff picture.
Things can change of course and the Bucks are still a very young team. But Jason Kidd has done a phenomenal job with this roster and, with almost everyone playing well, it's not hard to see this Bucks teams staying ahead of the Brooklyn Nets and other teams currently sitting in the 6-10 range in the Eastern Conference standings.
Who: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Milwaukee Bucks
When: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Quicken Loans Arena - Cleveland, Ohio
TV: Fox Sports Ohio, NBA League Pass
Music: Love Yourz - J. Cole
So who will play for the Cavs?
LeBron James, Kevin Love and Shawn Marion could all miss this game due to injury. This preview is coming out early in the day, so this question probably becomes moot after the Cavs go through their pregame shoot around.
But, as the last few games have shown, the Cavs are really dealing with a lot injuries right now. With the aforementioned players already noted, three members of the Cavs' rotation are dealing with injuries. You can include Kyrie Irving in that as well. That doesn't mention Anderson Varejao, who is out for the season, and Mike Miller, who missed a few games due a concussion. In fact, the only regular members of the Cavaliers rotation who haven't missed time this season are Love, Tristan Thompson and Joe Harris. With all of the Cavs' other issues, the injuries have not helped.
Here are a few interesting Cavs stats.
- Heading into today's game, the Cavs are ninth in the league in turnover percentage at 12.9 percent.
- Teams are shooting 46.9 percent against Cleveland, meaning the Cavs are sixth worst in the league at defending opponents field goals.
- The Cavs are ninth in the league in true shooting percentage at 55.5 percent.
- The Cavs are 26th in the league in pace, running roughly 91.9 possession per 48 minutes.
- With Anderson Varejao out, Thompson is the only Cavalier seeing regular time shooting over 50 percent from the field.
- Love is shooting 43.4 percent from the field, which is ninth best on the team.
- Dion Waiters, despite playing better of late, is currently shooting 28.8 percent on 3-pointers, worse than Shawn Marion and eight percent lower than his average last season last season.
Fear The Sword's Fearless Prediction
Under the assumption that at least one of Love and James miss the game, I think this game is closer than it would be under normal circumstances. But the Cavs should still be better and win this game. Cavs 101, Bucks 95.