CLEVELAND: Little-used backup center Anderson Varejao provided a big boost off a wounded bench and the Cavaliers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 115-100 Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
Varejao scored nine points in 11 minutes, LeBron James scored 27 points, grabbed nine rebounds and passed for six assists while forward Kevin Love had 22 points and 15 rebounds as the Cavs ended a brief two-game losing streak and stayed unbeaten at home. Guard Matthew Dellavedova set a career high with 13 assists.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a career-high 33 points for the Bucks, who trailed by as many as 21 in the first half.
The Cavs are down to their third-string point guard and now their backup centers. They started the night without starting point guard Kyrie Irving (knee surgery) and backup Mo Williams, who was a surprise scratch with a sore right leg.
Dellavedova kept the ball moving in Williams’ absence, then starting center Timofey Mozgov missed the second half Thursday with a strained right shoulder, forcing the little-used Varejao into key minutes.
Varejao made jumpers from the elbow, which has always been his comfort zone, and grabbed two rebounds in place of Mozgov.
Varejao ran a patented pick-and-roll with James in the fourth quarter, then started the ball swing that ended with Love at the line converting a three-point play for a 95-82 lead. The Cavs spent the game’s last nine-plus minutes in the bonus, while the Bucks didn’t draw their first foul in the fourth quarter until 8:27 remained.
After a few days of James publicly ripping his team’s play and an uncomfortable 45-minute film session Wednesday that exposed a lot of what the Cavs have done wrong the last few games, the Cavs responded the way both James and coach David Blatt wanted — at least in the first half.
The Cavs led by 21 in the second quarter and maintained a 63-48 lead at the half before nearly giving it all back. The Bucks missed just six shots in the third quarter while Antetokounmpo, Greg Monroe and Khris Middleton combined for 22 of their 31 points to trim the deficit to 86-79 entering the fourth, but they were crushed in rebounding 43-22.
The way Blatt and James have been talking the last few days, it would seem as if the Cavs have a losing record instead of their East-leading 9-3 mark. Both Blatt and James acknowledged, in their own ways, that it’s hardly time to panic. But there are bad habits developing they want to squash now rather than later.
“I think our guys just understand and know that it’s important for us to develop the habits and the attitude and the approach, make that part of us — like it was last year from midseason on,” Blatt said. “It’s not something you turn off and on, and I just think they recognize the importance of that. It’s an all-the-time thing, not a sometimes thing or when we feel like we need it.
“There are times during the year that you have to take stock and say, hey, wait a minute, this needs to be better or this needs to be corrected. And this might be one of those times.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.