In a full slate of games on Monday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers edged out a 116-114 win to remain undefeated on the season. The showdown came just two nights after their first meeting in Milwaukee when the Cavaliers beat the Bucks at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.
As one of two undefeated teams left in the NBA, the Cavaliers came into the game looking to continue their red-hot momentum. In the end, thanks to some big performances from several key players, they came out on top with a narrow 116-114 win to move their record up to 8-0 for the next start in franchise history.
“The Cleveland Cavaliers simply do not lose basketball games anymore,” said one fan in response to the streak. “I support it.”
Darius Garland was the hero of the night for the Cavaliers, and he stepped up with Donovan Mitchell struggling all night long (14 points on 5-15 FG). With 39 points and 8 assists on 15-22 shooting, it was Garland’s best game of the season and perhaps of his entire career.
“I never gave up on Darius Garland and it feels great,” wrote Bill Simmons.
The Cavaliers frontcourt dominated with Evan Mobley (17 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) and Jarrett Allen (14 points, 15 rebounds) completely controlling the paint. They kept the Bucks to 48.8% shooting while they managed to shoot 50.5% from the field.
“Dear Cavs, Thank You for the joy we desperately needed in this city,” wrote a happy Cavs fan. “Sincerely, Cleveland.”
Just like last season, the Cavaliers are proving to be a dominant defense force but the question is can their shooters hold up for the rest of the season? With Mitchell and Garland, they will always be a perimeter threat but success for the Cavaliers comes when they’re able to space the floor with four or more shooters at a time.
“Last year, the Cavs had four potential All-Stars. This year, they have four legitimate All-Stars,” a fan proclaimed.
For the Bucks, things are starting to get pretty rough. Giannis not being there does offer some relief for the loss but they’ve been struggling since long before his current injury. In fact, for many Bucks fans, this was the final straw and this season is already cursed to be a failure.
“The Bucks are 1-6 and they still gotta play the Celtics and Knicks this week,” wrote an X user in disbelief.
If not for 36 points and 7 assists from Damian Lillard, the game might not have even been close. Just like his days in Portland, Lillard answered with the game on the line and you can’t totally blame him for how it turned out.
“The Bucks are definitely not a very good basketball team right now,” stated one fan. “But I think they are a much closer to being a very good basketball team than the 1-6 record indicates. Both of those things can be true.”
The 2024-25 season is still so young and anything can happen between now and April. As a team, the Cavaliers still have a lot to prove before anyone will trust them under pressure and the Bucks still have months to figure things out before the playoffs begin.
Still, after tonight, we’re getting a better sense of which teams are going to pose the biggest threats this season and which ones will begin to fade over time. As it stands, the Cavaliers are among the contenders and they humbled the Bucks to a whole new degree over the past two games.
These two teams meet next on December 20th in Cleveland, when the Bucks head to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse at 7:30 PM EST.
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