Written by Jesse Lamovsky

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Aside from one stretch of horrendous basketball spanning the first and second quarters the Cavaliers held up pretty well Saturday night in Milwaukee’s home opener. Cleveland started out fast, fell behind, fought back in the second half and nearly pulled off a Kyrie Irving-led miracle comeback in the final moment before Brandon Jennings ended the festivities with a shot that blew the roof off the Bradley Center and the wind out of the sails of the Cavaliers.

Not good to lose the first game of a six-game road trip, but this was fun to watch nonetheless. When you’re young and on the road in the NBA games like this happen. What can you do?

The game unfolded in four parts, as follows:

Part I- The Fast Start: Looking like a team embarrassed over its performance the previous night- and they should have been- the Cavaliers came out crisply on Saturday. With Alonzo Gee getting off for nine of his 18 points and the offense ringing up five assists in the first eight minutes, Cleveland moved out to a 22-10 lead late in the first quarter over a Bucks team that had also played (and lost) the night before, in Boston.   

Part II- The Meltdown: After playing so well to start the ballgame, the Cavaliers then reverted back to their hijinks of the night before against Chicago. Taking dead aim at Cleveland’s bench, maybe the worst in the NBA, the Bucks broke loose for a 29-5 run that spanned nearly eight minutes of the first and second periods.

Milwaukee’s own bench did much of the damage. Mike Dunleavy, who shot 10-of-12 on the way to a 29-point, 12-rebound, 6-assist bonanza, got the Bucks going. His fellow reserves Larry Sanders (17 points on 8-of-9 shooting with 7 rebounds) and Beno Udrih (11 points, 5 assists) added to the barrage in the second period. The Cavalier second unit chipped in with lackluster defense, turnovers and a variety of shots that never went close to going in. And C.J. Miles- Holy shit has this guy been bad- 4-of-22 from the field so far with more turnovers (seven) than made field goals. Anthony Parker looks like Vinny Johnson coming off the bench compared to this guy.    

Milwaukee had a 39-27 lead with 7:29 left in the second quarter and pulled into intermission leading by six. One night after allowing the Bulls shoot 67 percent in the first half, the Cavaliers allowed the Bucks to shoot 66 percent. Although the score was still close, it appeared that Milwaukee would probably pull away in the second half and win fairly comfortably.

Part III: Cleveland Comeback: Instead the Cavaliers came out of the halftime locker room as the aggressors, just as they had to start the game. Anderson Varejao (20 points, 17 rebounds) got Cleveland off to a good start in the third with two jump shots and went on to score 12 points in the period. With Dion Waiters also heating up, the Cavaliers ripped off the first nine points of the second half to surge ahead, 58-55. They would hold that lead for the bulk of the third period on the way to a 79-76 advantage going into the fourth.

Waiters would end the night with 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting to go with 3 assists and 2 rebounds. He has shown the ability to create his own shot off the dribble and he can also defend. For a guy billed as a slasher and a finisher, though, he has taken an awful lot of jump shots so far. He’s had a tough time making things happen in the paint, although hopefully that will come with time.

His fellow rookie Tyler Zeller finished the night with 2 points and 7 rebounds. I guess he hasn’t been terrible so far, although his defense is forgettable (he made Larry Sanders look like a superstar on Saturday) but for a four-year player at North Carolina he looks awfully underdeveloped physically. Actually, right now he looks like a really tall high-school center. Let’s just say he looked bigger against Ohio U in the NCAA Tournament than he looks against NBA big men.

Part IV- An Alcoa-Style Fantastic Finish: The fourth quarter was wild and crazy fun. Cleveland led by as many as five early in the period and still led 93-90 after Kyrie Irving stuck a tough fadeaway jumper with 5:11 to play. But the Cavaliers started pressing offensively, with Irving and Waiters forcing bad shots, and Bucks came back again. Dunleavy’s sixth three-pointer of the night (in seven attempts) gave Milwaukee a 96-93 lead with 3:57 left. Building their bulge from there, the Bucks got up by seven at 102-95 with 1:37 remaining.

But the Cavaliers weren’t done yet. Kyrie’s three-point play started an improbable rally, one aided by back-to-back clock-stopping air-balls by Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis. With the Cavaliers within two, Irving (27 points on 10-of-18 with 6 assists and 4 rebounds despite foul trouble) went coast-to-coast and dropped in a difficult layup to tie the score at 102-102 with 00.7 seconds left.

Just when it appeared the game would be headed to overtime, Brandon Jennings turned out the lights. Taking an inbounds pass at the top of the key, Jennings rose over Waiters and Varejao and launched a high-arcing twenty five-footer that ripped through the bottom of the net as the horn sounded. And that was it.

Next: Monday night at 10:30 when the Cavaliers take on the Clip Show in Staples Center.