CLEVELAND – Down Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, the Milwaukee Bucks lost their sixth straight game Monday night, falling 116-114 to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers won their eighth straight to open the season – a franchise best – while the Bucks fell to 1-6.

The Bucks rallied from a 19-point third quarter deficit to lead 106-98 with six minutes to play before the Cavaliers started chipping away at the lead. Cleveland guard Darius Garland scored 39 points and had eight assists for the Cavaliers, including 12 points in the decisive fourth quarter.

Cleveland star Donovan Mitchell was held to 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting.

Box score: Cavaliers 117, Bucks 114

Damian Lillard led the Bucks with 36 points while Bobby Portis Jr. had 21 points, 18 rebounds and three blocked shots. Brook Lopez had 13 points and two blocks. AJ Green scored 21 points off the bench.

"I think in the second half our defense was solid," Green said of the comeback, which saw the Bucks hold the Cavaliers to 16 third-quarter points. "We trusted and moved and guarded as a unit, having each other’s back and knowing our next job. And offensively just keeping the ball moving, hopping around and shooting the shots that we got, really. Shooting with confidence.”

Milwaukee plays Utah at Fiserv Forum on Thursday night.

Cavaliers turn up heat on Lillard late

Overall, Damian Lillard had an excellent game Monday with 36 points and seven assists, but in certain instances the Cavaliers exploited the fact he is 6-feet-2-inches by trapping him with much bigger defenders near half court. He had five of the nine Bucks' turnovers in the first half that led to 14 Cavaliers points. Then with Milwaukee up 111-110 with 56.7 seconds left, he was trapped near the half-court line and committed a back-court violation.

Here's how the Bucks saw that play unfold:

Rivers said: “We worked on it this morning and I thought ‘Dre (Andre Jackson Jr.) got to the exact spot. I thought AJ Green was a little late. I thought we should’ve probably gotten rid of it early because we anticipated. They did it the other night. So, I guess what I was upset at, I thought the execution could’ve been perfect. What I saw would’ve happened was if we got it to ‘Dre, AJ Green’s guy is already going and we would’ve been standing there all by himself. Because they have to do that, otherwise ‘Dre would get a dunk. They pinned him to the line. I thought Dame was so far back, that allowed them to trap him. But, we’ll work on that. We have been working on it and we’ll get better at it.”

Green said: “Definitely. That’s on me. I’ve got to present early, early and often when we know they’re trapping, give Dame outlets so I could’ve done that. Next time I’ll do that.”

Garland then knocked down a three-pointer for what proved to the winning points with 45 seconds left.

Lillard missed a three-pointer just after that, and then Garland found Jarrett Allen for a layup to effectively clinch the game.

Lillard finished with eight turnovers, and he and Rivers thought four of them came off traps.

“Obviously I’ve seen it a lot in my career so I look at myself first," Lillard said. "I think I gotta take care of the ball. I gotta be able to deliver the ball out of that. It’s not something that’s new to me. I think they did a good job. They attacked the ball, they did it with speed, before the screen even got there sometimes they just ran up.

"I just gotta do a better job of delivering the ball, getting the ball out. We worked on outlets and positions that we needed to be in and I think they just did a good job of how they presented it so it was tough for us as a team. I just gotta do a better job.”

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Bucks’ bench comes to life vs. Cavs

The Bucks bench entered Monday’s game with the fifth-worst scoring unit in the NBA at 26.0 points per game and a brutal minus-70 point differential when they were on the court. They are totals that haven’t been helped by the fact that key reserve Taurean Prince has been starting in place of Middleton.

And, after a blistering preseason Portis has started the regular season in a slump, shooting a career-worst 25% from behind the three-point line and 47.6% overall, his worst percentage since 2019-20.

“Just sped up a little bit,” Rivers said about Portis before the game. “We gotta get him back to being comfortable. He played so well for us in the second half of last year and we gotta get him back to that. You know what happens though, I think, and it happens to a lot of players: They take from how the season ended and try to build on it and then they’re expecting that to just happen overnight. And you gotta work back into that, and I think that’s what Bobby’s doing.”

Without Antetokounmpo, Rivers turned to Portis to start alongside center Brook Lopez and Prince against the Cavaliers.

With Portis and Prince starting, it further jumbled a reserve unit that Rivers acknowledged the coaching staff had yet to sort out.

“Our bench, we gotta figure that out – that’s on us,” Rivers said after the Saturday loss to the Cavaliers at Fiserv Forum. “We have not found the correct rotation yet. And we have to. I do like going small a little bit like we did in the third (quarter) but we don’t have the right guys to do that obviously. The small lineup is more designed with Khris, and we don’t have Khris. But I still thought it gave us some punch, some speed. But there’s some negatives to that, too, that we saw. We’re just gonna keep searching for that.”

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That meant Green played significant minutes for the first time since getting 13 at Brooklyn on Oct. 27, logging nearly 34.

“He earned every one of ‘em,” Rivers said.

Pat Connaughton played his most minutes (22) since Brooklyn as well, handing out five assists and scoring seven points – including a go-ahead layup at the end of the third quarter.

"I think 'PC' is a big leader out there," Jackson said. "Honestly, every time I’m out there he’s pointing me to my spots and making sure that we’re all in the right spots, we’re on the right guys with the right matchups."

Jackson also remained in rotation (nearly 25 minutes) and two-way point guard Ryan Rollins (nearly seven minutes) found himself playing major crunch time minutes late in the third and early fourth quarters.

“Three young guys that really hung in there," Rivers said of Green, Jackson and Rollins. "All of them are tough-minded guys.”

Early in the day, Connaughton told the Journal Sentinel at shootaround that the bench groups need to continue to build continuity and chemistry – particularly when paired with starters – as training camp and practice settings typically feature the five starters going head-to-head with five reserves.

He broke it down further, noting there are different offensive and defensive calls and responsibilities for each individual, and those can change with each combination of players that are on the court together.

“It takes time,” he said. “Fortunately and unfortunately, right, we’ll better tonight than we were the other day than we were the other day. So I think it’s trying to continue to string together some consistency when the different lineups, the different systems that we’re putting in place, and the different systems with the different lineups.”

And, go figure, Green, Jackson, Connaughton and Rollins all contributed significantly in rallying the team from down 19 points in the second half to a 106-101 lead with 5:43 to go in the game when Lillard and Lopez re-entered.

“Ride the hot hand," Rivers said. "I said that before the year, this is the team I think we have. We can’t be scared to put different guys in. Even try different lineups. Because I think we have enough guys that will be able to do that.”

5 numbers

• 4: Points for Gary Trent Jr. on 1-of-7 shooting, including an 0-for-3 mark from behind the three-point line. The Bucks shooting guard is shooting less than 25% from deep on the season.

• 7: Three-pointers for AJ Green, tying a career high.

• 8-17: The Bucks' regular season road record under Doc Rivers, including a 1-4 mark away from Milwaukee this season. Rivers took over on the sidelines on the road in Denver on Jan. 29 last season.Rivers: “Obviously you want to win games on the road. We haven’t had the greatest health on the road and it’s hard to win without your guys on the road. It’s not that hard. But I still want to play better on the road, whether we’re healthy or not. Road wins are valuable. You have to get ‘em.”

• 7: Assists for Bucks point guard Damian Lillard, moving him past Marquette University alumnus and Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade for No. 47 on the all-time assists list.

• 3/12/2015-3/25/2015: The last time the Bucks lost six games in a row. The last time Milwaukee lost seven straight game was in the 2006-07 season (March 21 through April 4, 2007).

More: Milwaukee Bucks schedule 2024-2025 season

Giannis Antetokounmpo misses game with injury

Antetokounmpo began Monday as questionable to play after straining a right adductor muscle in the game against the Cavaliers. He participated in the Bucks shootaround on Monday morning, and Rivers said the team determined after that he would not go.

By not playing Monday, Antetokounmpo will have four days to recover before the team hosts Utah on Thursday.

"It helps, for sure," Rivers said. "He hates missing games, as you guys all know. And he draws them out even when; like I had decided in my own mind that he shouldn't play tonight right when they told me he that he was sore (Saturday). But I always let them (tell me). I was happy when they said – not happy because you want him to play – but for his health I think it's the right thing."

If there is a positive for Antetokounmpo health-wise, he is no longer listed as having tendinitis in his right patella, which he had been managing since the start of the season.

What is the Bucks record without Giannis?

0-1: This is the first game Antetokounmpo missed this season. Last year the Bucks went 4-5 when he was out of the lineup.

Bucks injury report

• Khris Middleton, out (surgery on both ankles)

• MarJon Beauchamp, out (non-COVID illness)

• Giannis Antetokounmpo, out (right adductor strain)

• Pat Connaughton, available (left adductor strain)

Bucks starters

• Guards: Damian Lillard, Gary Trent Jr.

• Forwards: Bobby Portis Jr., Taurean Prince

• Center: Brook Lopez

What channel is the Bucks game on?

The Bucks and Cavs tip-off at 6 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin with Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson and Melanie Ricks on the call.

Bucks vs. Cavaliers odds, over/under

The Cavs are 7.5-point favorites over the Bucks, and the over/under is 230.5 points.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Without Giannis and Middleton, Bucks lose to Cavaliers 116-114