Bucks 112, Cavaliers 104: Bucks remain unbeaten when the 'Big Three' play together

Giannis Antetokounmpo returned after missing two games with right calf soreness to celebrate his 27th birthday with a 27-point, 12-rebound effort as the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 112-104, Monday night at Fiserv Forum.

“Just doing him,” Jrue Holiday said with a laugh. “I feel like you know what you’re going to get from Giannis. He’s going to play hard, play through things, he hates leaving his team just out there even if he’s injured or a little banged he’s still going to go out there and give everything.”

The two-time league most valuable player played 27 minutes but helped extend a few winning streaks with his return, as the Bucks are 5-0 against the Central Division and 11-0 when he, Holiday and Khris Middleton are on the court together.

Milwaukee’s “Big Three” proved why the Bucks are hard to beat when they are in sync in the decisive fourth quarter, as the trio scored all 24 of the team’s points. They also accounted for the only four assists from the team in the quarter.

The Bucks are also 4-0 when playing on Antetokounmpo’s birthday.

Box score: Bucks 112, Cavaliers 104

Overall Milwaukee has won 10 of its last 11 and is 16-9 overall. Cleveland dropped to 13-12.

“Everything,” Middleton said of what’s changed for the Bucks since a 6-8 start. “Health is a huge thing, as long as we can stay healthy we’re going to give ourselves a great shot to win every night. Also just finding a groove throughout the season, finding – I say it all the time – finding different ways to win ballgames, learning a lot about ourselves watching film, learning from our mistakes, it goes all hand-in-hand.”

Cleveland got back into the game with a 9-0 run to begin the fourth quarter to pull with 88-87, a run broken by an Antetokounmpo three-point play. He would score eight straight points, including one of his 3 three-pointers, to give the Bucks breathing room at 96-89.

“Obviously they had three 7-footers out there showing crowd, contesting every drive; I just had to play smart, get to my spot, but I tried to stay aggressive as much as possible,” Antetokounmpo said.

“Sometimes I’m going to be able to get in the paint and sometimes I’m going to rely on my jump shot and sometimes I’m going to rely on my teammates, I’m going to pass the ball and hopefully I make the right play and I hope I put them in a position to knock down shots.”

He subbed out, and Holiday (20 points, eight assists) and Middleton (21 points, eight assists) took over in scoring every point until Antetokounmpo checked back in with the Bucks up 103-87 with 4 minutes 17 seconds left in the game.

“It’s big time,” Budenholzer said of the fourth quarter performance by the Bucks’ stars. “Khris got it going there for a bit. I though the corner three by Jrue, I think it’s 98-96, and Khris gets a piece of the paint and kicks it out and Jrue makes the corner three. I thought that pass and that shot might have been the biggest kind of swing because it as hanging there at two for awhile and we needed a play from somebody and those two guys produced one. Those three guys, there’s a lot of firepower with those guys and they share it well and they play well together and they play off of each other well. But when we need other guys they’re there for us too.”

From there Antetokounmpo scored seven of the team’s final nine points to seal the victory.

“He just got hot, took the game over and said we’re going to win this game,” Middleton said of Antetokounmpo’s closing stretch. “Cleveland, they’re a way better team than they’ve been in the past, so for him to come through like that with those big shots, knowing that he’s not labeled as a shooter to come down and hit two threes like that, pull ups, is great. It’s great. It’s great that we see something we can use later on in the season.”

While the Bucks’ star trio handled the offense, it would not have been possible without Bobby Portis cleaning the glass and keeping the Cavaliers from making a run. Portis pulled down eight defensive rebounds in the fourth quarter en route to 16 total boards. He also scored 10 points.

“Big, big, especially with three 7-footers out there crashing the boards every single time,” Antetokounmpo said of Portis’ effort. “He put his body to box out guys and went out there and got a bunch of rebounds. It was big time.”

Guard Grayson Allen also returned to to the starting lineup for the Bucks after missing two games with a non-COVID related illness and had six points. Pat Connaughton added 12 off the bench.

Jared Allen led the Cavaliers with 23 points while Lauri Markkanen had 20. Kevin Love had 15 off the bench.

A buzzer-beating jumper by Antetokounmpo gave the Bucks an 88-78 lead after three quarters, but the Cavaliers had cut the lead down to as few as four in the quarter. Despite the slow nature of the game, the third quarter featured the teams trading runs:

• Milwaukee began with a 9-2 run to begin the second half to go up, 65-52.

• The Cavaliers responded with a 12-3 run to make it 68-64.

• Holiday and Middleton combined for seven straight points to put the Bucks up, 75-64.

• Cavaliers vets Love and Ricky Rubio responded with nine to make it 78-73.

• Milwaukee closed on a 10-5 spurt.

Milwaukee led by as many as 11 points in the first half but couldn’t quite pull away from a cold-shooting Cleveland team, taking a 56-50 lead into the half.

Despite giving up some size to the Cavaliers at times, the Bucks had a 28-16 advantage in points in the paint. They also had 14 fast break points. Holiday led eight different Bucks scorers with 10 points while Markkanen had 12 to pace the Cavaliers.

The Bucks broke a 24-24 tie after one quarter with a 12-5 run to start the second behind four straight points from Antetokounmpo in the opening minute. The Bucks slowly worked that seven-point lead to 47-36 on a three-point play from Cousins. Cleveland then cut it to six in the final 37 seconds of the half thanks to five straight points from Markannen.

Cleveland opened the game missing its first seven shots, but the Bucks didn’t fare much better in making just two and neither team reached double digits until Middleton made it 11-7 Milwaukee with 6:16 to go. The Cavaliers edged the Bucks, 17-13, over the back half of the quarter and even took a brief 24-22 lead in the final seconds, but Middleton sunk a buzzer-beating layup to tie the game.

Donte DiVincenzo making progress

On May 27, Milwaukee Bucks guard Donte DiVincenzo hopped off the court at FTX Arena in Miami during the first round of the playoffs against the Heat. On June 8, he underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left ankle.

The 24-year-old has been dunking and doing some light full-court work before Bucks games over the last few weeks, but on Monday the club assigned him to the Wisconsin Herd of the G League in order for him to be able to be in a practice setting.

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He was then recalled later in the day back to Milwaukee and no firm timeline was set on a return to action.

“He’s making good progress, he’s able to do stuff kind of in a live environment so it’s great for him to get some reps, to play,” Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said before the game against Cleveland. “He’s checked a lot of boxes. He’s still got more to go, but he continues to do well and probably exceed our expectations. His focus, his work just continues to be off the charts.”

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The Bucks head out on a four-game road trip Wednesday in Miami, but Budenholzer said there’s a chance DiVincenzo spends more days with the Herd so he can get in practice time as he gets closer to a return.

“When you get into an NBA season it’s harder to get enough bodies to get those real kind of live type, three-on-threes, four-on-fours, maybe five-on-fives,” Budenholzer said. “The Herd and the connection and the synergy there, it’s just a great opportunity for Donte to just continue to work towards returning.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Middleton, Holiday star as Bucks beat Cavaliers