Jason Kidd knew that if his Milwaukee Bucks could withstand the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first-quarter onslaught, then they would have a chance at victory Tuesday night.
So when they were right there, trailing 32-30 after 12 minutes, their confidence grew, and carried them all the way to a statement victory, 118-101 over LeBron James and the defending NBA Champions.
“I think one, we withstood their run in that first quarter. Understanding they’re the best team in the first quarter, well they’re the champs, but they do quite well in that first quarter,” Coach Kidd said. “Throughout the league I think they put up the most points, and so for us to only be down two was something that we accomplished, it was a goal. From there we started to get a little bit of confidence defensively.”
Milwaukee was able to take that two-point first-quarter deficit and turn it into a four-point halftime lead. Ultimately, it was the third quarter where the Bucks took off, outscoring the Cavs 34-20 to build an 18-point lead—one that proved to be too much for Cleveland to overcome.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was once again the shining star for Milwaukee, finishing the game with 34 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and five steals.
“I think he’s arrived. He’s been here now four years, so it’s not that he’s arrived, he’s getting better for his hard work but he’s going against the best player in the world and he still has a ways to go to get there, but again it’s a great team win,” J-Kidd said. “Giannis was great, but he can’t do it by himself, his teammates helped him and it was everybody who participated, even the guys who didn’t. Being on the bench sometimes goes unnoticed and tonight I thought everyone was into the game.”
It was another all-around great team effort that helped lead the Bucks to victory, specifically the battle of the benches, where the Bucks bench outscored Cleveland’s 48-32.
“I think it’s great for a coach because you can just raise the bar. They’ve shown that they can do it for 48 minutes, and so for that locker room, those guys hold each other accountable and they talked about it after the game that we still have a long ways to go but we can’t be satisfied,” Kidd said. “Understand we played the best team, the champs, and we see them twice in two weeks I think we got them back-to-back, so again there’s a lot of positives, there’s still room for improvement. This is a good win for us and now can we build on it.”
