Cavaliers @ Bucks tips and picks: Cavs covering machine to keep rolling in Milwaukee
- George Dempsey
- 24 January 2024
The Milwaukee Bucks (0-0) will host one of the NBA’s form teams at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday night as the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers visit (Thurs 0100 GMT).
The Bucks opened as a -7 favourite against the hottest team in the NBA right now, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and that’s a line you can poke some holes in.
The Cavs obliterated the Bucks 135-95 on home court just one week ago, but Milwaukee were missing Giannis Antetokounmpo for that game. That said, that doesn't account for more than a few points.
They could be at full strength tonight against a Cleveland team that is still missing Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and now the suspended Tristan Thompson.
The starting five that has carried them on a stellar winning run is still intact, but they’re getting thinner on the ground.
This is a game where revenge is a relevant factor and we saw what Milwaukee did to the Celtics when gaining a measure of revenge for the playoffs, but that’s different.
Boston was in a horrible scheduling situation and shot just 37.4% from the floor, which is not a number you see the Bucks hold anyone to.
Despite being ranked as the fourth-best defence in the NBA last season, they’ve lost Jrue Holiday and look a lot easier to score on. They ranked 22nd this season.
Luckily they’re an unbelievable offence, but if anyone is going to have a chance of slowing them down, it will be Cleveland.
They’ve held four straight opponents to fewer than 100 points and 12 straight to 43 or fewer made field goals.
On the other side of the ball, Cleveland is scoring extremely well and making fast starts, and they can keep pace with Milwaukee as long as Donovan Mitchell is in his grove.
It’s been apparent that something hasn’t been quite right with the Bucks and now we know after they moved to fire head coach Adrian Griffin on Wednesday.
That seems more like a positive for the players who now get to work with Doc Rivers but we’ll have to wait a while for that positive change to have an effect.
The Cavs are on a 5-0 ATS run and 4-1 ATS against home teams winning 60%+ of games, while the Bucks are on a 1-6 ATS run at home and 1-10 ATS overall.
