The Milwaukee Bucks turned in one of their better defensive efforts of the season on Friday night but had one of their toughest on offense in losing 112-100 to the Cleveland Cavaliers at Fiserv Forum.

The Bucks (31-14) missed 11 straight shots and committed six turnovers in a nearly nine-minute stretch of the third quarter that saw a 63-57 lead turned to a 74-65 deficit.

“Obviously they’re a good defensive team but we put a bit too much pressure on our guys,” Bucks center Brook Lopez said.

“We need to make it easier for them. I know I wasn’t great tonight. I could have been much better. There’s a lot areas that I personally could have been better tonight. I think I could’ve helped but I didn’t get it done tonight.”

Though trailing by nine typically isn’t an insurmountable lead for a team with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton.

But, the Cavaliers (27-16) came in with the league’s third-best scoring defense and fourth-best shooting defense and the Bucks just couldn’t find a way around, or over, that group in the last 14 minutes of the game.

Milwaukee got to within 104-95 when Antetokounmpo drew a foul on Dean Wade. But during his lengthy pre-free throw routine Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was able to view the call and challenge it – and got it overturned. The Bucks turned it over and the Cavaliers scored, pushing the lead to 106-95 with less than two minutes remaining to effectively seal the game. ‘

Lillard scored 22 points on 7 of 23 shooting, including a 2-for-10 mark from behind the three-point line. Middleton had 14 points on 5 of 16 shooting and Brook Lopez was 4-for-14 from the field for 11 points. Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 22 points to go with 10 rebounds and nine assists.

Bucks guard Malik Beasley, who is turning in one of the best three-point shooting seasons in franchise history, didn’t get his first shot until less than two minutes were left.

“We slowed ourselves down,” Bobby Portis said. “We’re attacking matchups. We weren’t playing side-to-side, ball wasn’t moving side-to-side. We played a lot of one-on-one tonight. We were trying to attack the matchups, this and that, so I think we kind of just did it to ourselves tonight.”

Cleveland was led by Donovan Mitchell’s 32 points and Jarret Allen’s double-double of 24 points and 14 rebounds.

Antetokounmpo and Middleton elected to not speak to the media after the game.

Cavaliers slow down Giannis Antetokounmpo

Before Friday’s game, Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said the way his team defended Giannis Antetokounmpo in a loss on Wednesday was not ideal – largely because the MVP candidate not only scored 35 points on 24 shots, but also handed out 10 assists.

For Bickerstaff, he wants his team to pick its poison: Either Antetokounmpo scores and doesn’t play-make for others, or the other way around. And leading into the Friday’s game Bickerstaff said he wanted to see Antetokounmpo’s shot attempts come down with some tighter, more physical paint defense.

And his team did just that.

Despite only taking seven shots in the first half, Antetokounmpo scored 17 points and made every one of them. He then contributed six assists to the Bucks’ 57-54 halftime lead.

He did, however, also receive two foul calls, one of which was offensive.

In the third quarter, Antetokounmpo only went 1 for 4 for two points and was given another offensive foul. He then received his fourth and fifth fouls in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, the latter of which was his third offensive foul.

He had to sit down until the 7-minute, 17- second mark, at which point the Bucks trailed 96-82. But even then the Bucks’ offensive rhythm had bene gone too long for it to matter.

It ended Antetokounmpo’s triple-double streak at two games.