Cavaliers coach Mike Brown takes it all back.
One day after bragging about how his team was ahead of the curve in defensive improvement, the Cavaliers couldn’t be bothered to play any in a 109-104 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night at BMO Harris Bradley Center.
“Maybe I spoke too soon about our team defensively,” said Brown, whose team allowed the Bucks to shoot an opponent season high 50 percent from the field. “The performance they gave today is unacceptable.”
O.J. Mayo led the Bucks with 28 points, including four free throws in the last 13 seconds as the Bucks, 2-2, frantically tried to hang on after squandering a 13-point, fourth-quarter lead. He made 9 of 19 shots, including 6 of 7 3-pointers. But his biggest play may have been a defensive one. Paired with Kyrie Irving on an isolation with 15 seconds left, Irving lost the ball out of bounds with 13.7 seconds left, effectively ending the Cavs threat after a 19-5 run gave them a brief 104-103 lead on a 3-pointer by C.J. Miles with 1 minute left.
What was Irving trying to do on that play?
“Score the ball, as simple as that, ice the game,” he said. “Especially with 13 seconds left as a point guard and as a playmaker I’ve got to bring it to the middle of the floor. I just let O.J. crowd me into a tough shot in the corner. On to the next one. Just got to learn from this one.”
Irving finished with 29 points, 13 in the fourth quarter when the Cavs finally decided to play.
“We just didn’t get the stops that we needed until late in the game, and that can’t happen,” Irving said.
Cleveland came into the game ranked fourth in the league in opponent field goal percentage at 40.5 — quite a leap for a team that was last in the league in that category last season. But except for the final five minutes, it seemed all the Cavs wanted to do was trade baskets with the Bucks.
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