Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Milwaukee Bucks: game preview, start time, TV information

The Cavaliers enter their tilt against the Milwaukee Bucks coming off yet another humiliating loss, this time to the Atlanta Hawks.

(Note: If you think that I’m copy/pasting a template for these previews given how predictable the Cavs are, I probably could get away with it, but this is all original, baby.)

They’re set to square off with Milwaukee in their second matchup of the season after blowing out the Bucks on the road. This probably means that they won’t try tonight, and get run off the floor at home.

Sorry, guys.

Who: Milwaukee Bucks (4-5) at Cleveland Cavaliers (4-6)

When: 7 p.m. ET

Where: Quicken Loans Arena

Enemy Blog: Brewhoop

TV: NBA TV

Online: Fox Sports Go (Locals only)

Cavs injuries: Isaiah Thomas (OUT - hip), Iman Shumpert (PROBABLE - right knee), Tristan Thompson (OUT - calf)

Bucks injuries: Jabari Parker (OUT - knee)

Three keys to the game:

• Defending Giannis, is, as always, the key to beating the Bucks. He’s able to get to the lane at will despite teams literally only trying to stop that, and the Bucks have surrounded him with capable shooters that can blast away from three when the Cavaliers inevitably miscommunicate on their help defense. Jae Crowder will draw the main assignment again, and it’s a tough one for him - Giannis has about five inches on him, and that length is tough to handle for bigger defenders.
• Well, Dwyane Wade said it better than me, but the Cavaliers starters need to not be...terrible. They’ve been awful almost every single game, and it’s led to the Cavs having the 29th-best net rating in first quarters this season at -18.9, and it’s not better in the second half, with a third-quarter net rating of -14.5. This unit isn’t perfect, but they’ve got enough pieces to be a competent, break-even lineup. LeBron James plays in it, for God’s sake. This shouldn’t be so hard, but it has been thus far. We’ll see if they can find any traction there.
• Kyle Korver remains a joy for this Cavaliers team, and he lit up the Bucks in his first game of the year against them. The Bucks aren’t particularly disciplined on defense, and it allows Korver to find open space via off-ball pindowns as well as good old-fashioned movement. Most sets that involve Korver seem to yield results for the Cavs. It’d be smart to lean on him in what should be a tough game.

Key Matchup

It’s hard to worry about much other than Giannis with the Bucks. If he doesn’t play well, it’s hard to draw a road-map to a win for Milwaukee against most opponents. Jae Crowder will have his work cut out against him as stated earlier, and walling off the paint as a team (something the Cavaliers are terrible at) is going to be hugely important without giving up too many threes (something the Cavaliers are terrible at).

Fear the Sword’s Fearless Prediction

The Cavs come out tight in an attempt to prove that they indeed are not a bad basketball team and drop a close one, 111-109.