Emoni Bates and Luke Travers shine in victory over Bucks

The Cavs dominated every facet of the game on Sunday.

The Cleveland Cavaliers got off to the exact opposite start on Sunday than they did in their first game Friday. Emoni Bates and Luke Travers were big reasons why that was the case against the Milwaukee Bucks. The Cavs ran away with an easy 112-81 win.

Travers got the assist on Cleveland’s first basket. He made a good cut from the wing and quickly found Jaylon Tyson in the corner for a wide-open triple.

Travers followed that up with two steals shortly thereafter that led to easy baskets. He then ran the floor for a transition dunk to give the Cavs an early 10-point advantage they never looked back from.

Emoni Bates is at his best as a facilitator and scorer when he’s able to push in transition. Bates’s limitless range and quick release make him someone you need to immediately pick up when he’s in the open floor. The Bucks found out how deadly he can be in those situations.

The Cavs led 38-21 after one. They made sure the game wasn’t going to become competitive from there as they won the second 34-16. Cleveland coasted from three.

It can be difficult to make sweeping declarations from Summer League, let alone a game this lopsided. Nearly every Cleveland starter and reserve had a positive impact. But it really was Travers and Bates who stood out.

Travers, making his first Summer League appearance this year after missing Friday’s game with a hamstring injury, showed how impactful his off-ball defense, cutting, and ability to get out in transition can be. He was the glue guy that allowed the offense to hum in a way it didn’t on Friday when it looked completely disjointed. Travers finished Sunday’s game with 10 points on 4-5 shooting with seven boards, three assists, and two steals in 20 minutes.

Bates has taken on a much more on-ball role in Las Vegas Summer League after not spending a ton of time on-ball with the Cleveland Charge last season. Friday was a bit of a mixed bag as he did a good job of hitting some tough shots, but wasn’t getting his baskets within the flow of the offense. That wasn’t the case on Sunday.

Charge head coach Mike Gerrity spent much of last season talking about how Bates needs to play with more force on and off-ball. We saw that force on Sunday as Bates did a good job of making quick decisions when he was the play initiator in the half-court. This style of play only seemed to give him more confidence to knock down catch-and-shoot threes when the ball did find him.

This was the template for how you would like to see Bates play moving forward. There’s plenty of reasons to be skeptical about whether some of the on-ball offense could translate to the NBA, but this was the roadmap for what the best version of Bates would look like. He concluded with 18 points on 6-12 shooting with six boards and four assists in 20 minutes of play.

Other notables

• Jaylon Tyson had a solid bounce-back game providing 14 points and seven boards. His rebounding ability continues to jump off the screen.
• Pete Nance looked much better defensively while contributing 14 points.
• Zhaire Smith had one of the most impressive in-game dunks you’ll see with this throwdown over Jaylin Galloway.

The Cavs will be back in action Wednesday as they take on the Golden State Warriors at 10 PM.