OH DEER, ANOTHER LOSS FOR RAPTORS
Toronto drops two in a row after falling to Bucks
It’s not a major revelation, but the Milwaukee Bucks are going to be a concern for the Toronto Raptors for the next five months.
The Bucks, who won the first matchup between these teams a month and a half ago, made it 2-0 in the season series with a tooth-and-nail 104-99 win, this time with both Kawhi Leonard and Giannis Antetokounmpo in uniform.
And this time on Toronto’s home court.
But it was neither of the NBA royal family members who made the biggest difference in this one.
It was more of a collective effort by both teams.
The biggest shots of the night belonged to the Bucks’ Malcolm Brogdon, the 2017 rookie of the year now in his third NBA season.
Brogdon erased a three-point Toronto lead with a minute and change remaining that Leonard established with his only threepoint make of the night.
But Brogdon wasn’t done. After a Kyle Lowry miss at the other end, one of five on the night for the struggling point guard who did not register a single point in the game, Brogdon calmly set his feet and drilled another to put the Bucks up three.
Fred VanVleet got two of those back on a drive, but the Bucks extended that one-point lead to three when Pascal Siakam lost Antetokounmpo on an inbounds play allowing the Greek Freak an uncontested dunk at the other end.
Toronto had a dozen seconds left to force this one into overtime, but a somewhat panicked three from well behind the top of the arc from Leonard hit the front of the rim and was rebounded by the Bucks to put the game away.
Toronto is now 21-7 and have now lost two in a row for just the second time this season, having dropped one in Brooklyn on Friday.
The road only gets tougher for the Raptors, who head out on a four-game trip that starts with the Clippers and includes stops in Golden State, Portland and Denver.
Serge Ibaka led all scorers with 22, while Leonard had 20 and VanVleet added 19.
The Bucks spread things around as Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez led with 19, while the hero Brogdon finished with 18.
FINDING THAT THREE
The three ball has been a bit of a mystery for the Raptors of late. Lowry’s shot has all but disappeared.
CJ Miles has had a running battle finding his own all season with any consistency. Even steady VanVleet has been having issues of late getting it to drop.
So it was a welcome relief Sunday to see someone other than Leonard find the bottom of the well for a change. Head coach Nick Nurse actually predicted it was going to happen.
“We’re gonna start making them tonight,” Nurse said pregame when the subject of all the recent troubles from that range were brought up.
By halftime, the Raptors had already hit six. By the end of three quarters, that number was up to 10 led by a 3-for-4 performance from distance from VanVleet.
Ibaka also had three, but he had taken nine attempts, so not quite as efficient as VanVleet.