There’s just no two ways about it. The Milwaukee Bucks were utterly humiliated by the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night via a 40-point demolition job at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was a late scratch for the game due to a shoulder injury, but perhaps not even the most pessimistic fans were not able to anticipate this bad of a loss for the Bucks without their talisman.
Adrian Griffin Reacts to Milwaukee Bucks’ Brutal Loss
The Cavs pretty much mahandled the Bucks in this one. Milwaukee head coach Adrian Griffin appears to agree with this notion. Shortly after watching his team suffer their worst defeat of the season, the rookie coach gave his brutally honest assessment of his team’s performance on the evening:
“We didn’t execute on the offensive end,” Griffin said, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “You come in here and you gotta execute. Very rarely did we play to the second side. Very rarely did we go to our second, third option. We would just literally come down, shoot, or come down, one shot, pass, shot. And it’s not going to beat a team like Cleveland with the way they have their defense.”
Simply put, nothing went right for the Bucks on Wednesday night. Poor offense ultimately led to an unacceptable defensive performance form Milwaukee — one that saw Georges Niang randomly drop a career-high 33 points on them in 27 minutes off the bench.
“It’s tough to get stops and get back set, if you’re turning the ball over and you’re taking poor shots,” Griffin continued. “Your transition defense starts with shot quality and your spacing, which allows you to have better floor balance. And so, yeah, it seems like it’s a defensive issue, but it’s more of an offensive issue. That is the root of it because your transition defense really starts on the offensive end.”
Damian Lillard had the same assessment of his team’s performance against the Cavs. According to the seven-time All-Star, their shooting woes was what led to their problems on the defensive end. They started off slow on both ends, and they just couldn’t recover against a scorching-hot Cleveland side.
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