Charles F. Gardner

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

It's safe to say the Milwaukee Bucks got the full attention of the champs.

Cleveland started with a purpose and finished with a flourish to hold off a determined Bucks team, 114-108, in overtime Tuesday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

LeBron James hit the game-winner as he buried a deep three-pointer with 24 seconds left in overtime and finished with 34 points to lead all scorers. He also had 12 rebounds and seven assists.

Kyrie Irving added 28 points for Cleveland (20-6).

Jabari Parker led the Bucks (13-13) with 30 points and nine rebounds and Giannis Antetokounmpo added 25 points and 13 rebounds before fouling out in overtime. John Henson had 14 points and eight rebounds.

James scored seven points and Richard Jefferson added five as the Cavaliers outscored the Bucks, 14-8, in the extra 5-minute period. The teams will play again in Cleveland on Wednesday night with an extremely short turnaround.

Parker had a chance to put the Bucks up by three points late in overtime but his shot spun out and Antetokounmpo fouled out trying to grab the rebound. James wrested it away from the Bucks player with 28.1 seconds left.

"It's basketball," Bucks coach Jason Kidd said. "The ball just didn't go down for us. If the ball goes down, Giannis doesn't get the sixth foul. Giannis had the ball, I thought, for a minute. Then LeBron made a heck of a play to come up with the steal."

Parker hit 13 of 25 field goals and 4 of 7 free throws, but he missed two foul shots with a chance to tie the game after James' clutch three-pointer.

"Jabari was going and his teammates made a conscious effort to get him the ball," Kidd said. "I thought he responded in a positive way by scoring the ball, finding guys, getting to the free throw line.

"He had a heck of a game for us tonight."

Parker posted up on Iman Shumpert and scored to tie the game at 100 with 15.5 seconds left, and Irving missed a three-pointer in the final seconds.

The Bucks called two timeouts with one-tenth of a second left to try to set up a final play, and they could only throw a lob to the rim with that time remaining. But the Cavaliers prevented that strategy by putting two defenders on Parker, the inbounds passer.

The Cavaliers lost in their first game in Milwaukee this season, a 118-101 embarrassment that caused coach Tyronn Lue to bench all his starters at one point in the third quarter.

Irving said the Cavaliers did not forget.

"As soon as I walked in for shootaround, I said, 'This is a must win in this building.'", Irving said. "Understanding what they did to us last time. But we've got less than 24 hours to get ready for them from here."

James said he knew what to expect from the Bucks.

"We know this team plays us tougher every single time," James said. "It was a big win for us to come in here and get a win in a building that last time we didn't play particularly well and they beat up on us."

Antetokounmpo got off to a slow start but hit 13 of 15 free throws as he asserted himself in the second half, and he also hit a pair of three-pointers in the fourth quarter. He quickly shifted his thoughts to Wednesday's game.

"It's tough to play the same team twice in a row," Antetokounmpo said. "Both teams are going to be tired so it's basically who is going to bring more energy.

"You know the Cavs are going to be tired; you know LeBron played 48 minutes."

Cleveland came out with purpose and streaked to an 18-point lead early in the second quarter, pushing its margin to 47-29 on a three-pointer by Shumpert.

BOX SCORE: Cavs 114, Bucks 108

But the Bucks fought back and trimmed their deficit to 57-53 at halftime, behind Parker (16 points) and Henson (10 points).

The Cavaliers sank 8 of 15 three-pointers in the first half.

Milwaukee shot 54% (21 of 39) in the half but was just 2 of 9 from three-point range.

The Bucks had a four-point lead in the third quarter but Cleveland finished the quarter on a 17-7 run to take an 84-78 lead into the final quarter.

Antetokounmpo hit his three-pointers midway through the fourth quarter, the second one bringing the Bucks within 91-89 with 6:47 left.

James sank a long three-pointer over Antetokounmpo to stretch the Cavaliers' lead to 97-91 with 4 minutes left.

But the Bucks rallied from a 100-93 deficit by scoring the last seven points in regulation. A hook shot by Greg Monroe and a three-pointer by Tony Snell cut the Bucks' deficit to 100-98 before Parker tied it.

Antetokounmpo had a lane jumper and Snell scored a layup to give the Bucks a one-point lead in overtime, but the Greek Freak fouled out moments later.

James then drilled his 33-foot three-pointer - from Stephen Curry range - with 24 seconds left for a 110-108 Cleveland lead.

"I saw my man; he went under the handoff," James said. "It's something I practice before the game. It's something I do on practice days.

"I was shooting the ball extremely well tonight from the perimeter, so I trusted it. I trusted what I've been doing, the work I've been putting into it and knocked it down."

Parker was fouled with 19.1 seconds left but missed both free throws and James grabbed the rebound. The Bucks had to foul Irving and he sank both foul shots with 15.7 seconds remaining to give the Cavaliers a 112-108 lead.

"They learned a lot," Kidd said of his players. "You're going against the world champs and we took them down to the wire. We have a quick turnaround here. We play in Cleveland tomorrow. We get to watch video, clean up some of the mistakes and give them another fight."

THREE TAKEAWAYS

1. Bucks rookie guard Malcolm Brogdon drove for a one-handed dunk over Kyrie Irving in the first quarter, a stunning play and one the Cleveland guard was not too happy about. Brogdon did a powerful reverse dunk in the third quarter – with LeBron James going for a block - that brought fans out of their seats. "There were a few open gaps tonight and I just tried to attack them aggressively," Brogdon said. "Honestly, if I looked and saw it was LeBron, I might not even have gone up. He just happened to be there."

2. John Henson’s improvement at the free throw line is a big factor in his ability to take over as the Bucks starting center. Henson entered the game shooting 71% from the line and made 4 of 6 foul shots against the Cavs.

3. James’ first basket of the game pushed him past Moses Malone (27,409) for eighth place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. James now has 27,442 points.

UP NEXT

Teams: Milwaukee Bucks (13-13) vs. Cleveland Cavaliers (20-6).

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: Quicken Loans Arena.

About the Cavaliers: Richard Jefferson started his third game in 26 appearances this season when the Cavs met the Bucks on Tuesday. He filled in for the injured Kevin Love and LeBron James moved to power forward. Cleveland is the only team in the NBA with three players averaging at least 22 points – James, Love and Irving. Channing Frye played well off the Cleveland bench on Tuesday and finished with 15 points in 25 minutes.