Good vibes abound in Milwaukee as fans celebrate the Brewers’ first World Series championship.
The new-look Bucks hope the positive feeling continues this weekend as they host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night.
Milwaukee has lost four of its first five games under first-year coach Taylor Jenkins, hitting a low point Wednesday with a 132-100 home loss to the Houston Rockets.
Tyler Herro and Jaime Jaquez Jr. — the primary returns in the Bucks’ trade of two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo — were the lone bright spots. Herro had 23 points, and Jaquez scored 19.
“As a team, we’ve just got to be better prepared to go into these moments and understand what we need to do,” said Jaquez, who is averaging 17.8 points and 7.2 rebounds.
“We had a great win against Indiana (two days earlier), but we have to understand that’s just one game. There is always another one coming.”
The rest of Milwaukee’s starters simply couldn’t make shots against a Rockets team playing without center Alperen Sengun and defensive stopper Marcus Smart.
Kyle Kuzma, Myles Turner and Ryan Rollins combined to shoot 6 of 27 from the field, including 0 of 10 from 3-point range.
“We tried everything, it didn’t work out,” Jenkins said. “It wasn’t our night tonight. Give (Houston) credit, they played well, but I didn’t have our guys prepared.”
The Cavaliers are also coming off a loss, a 114-111 decision at the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday. All-Star Donovan Mitchell missed a pair of heavily contested 3-pointers on the final possession.
James Harden snapped out of his offensive rut with a season-high 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting, while Sam Merrill also found his touch with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting. However, Cleveland squandered a 15-point lead.
“We gave ourselves a shot, had some opportunities after twice rallying from a 10- or 11-point deficit,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They just started digging us with threes (making 17 of 43), and we’ve got to do a better job getting big rebounds.”
Cleveland appeared tired while playing the second half of a back-to-back after a 121-111 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday. That victory completed a homestand in which the Cavaliers rallied to win all three games.
The Cavaliers have yet to win on the road, going 0-2 one year after reaching the Eastern Conference finals. They notably lost at the Philadelphia 76ers on opening night.
“We haven’t had the great game, that full 48-minute domination, that’s for sure,” Atkinson said. “But we’ve got a good group. Overall, we’re doing a lot of good things.”
Cleveland is likely to be without rookie Meleek Thomas, who missed the Hawks game with right foot soreness and is questionable for Saturday. The second-round pick burst onto the scene in his NBA debut Monday with 16 points in 19 minutes, fueling an overtime win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Another of the Cavaliers’ most athletic reserves, forward Nae’Qwan Tomlin, remains out indefinitely with a stress reaction in his lower back.
Cleveland went 3-1 against Milwaukee last season, but the Bucks hold a commanding 79-41 all-time lead at home against the Cavaliers.
