Raptors expecting ‘dogfight’ with Bucks in Game 6

Raptors coach Dwane Casey expects Game 6 in Milwaukee to be a 48-minute dogfight Thursday night as Toronto looks to close out its first-round playoff series against the young, athletic Bucks.

“Our No. 1 thing (Thursday) night is to go in with a warrior’s mentality,” he told reporters after practice Wednesday. “And not go in, get hit with a punch and say ‘OK, we’ve got Game 7.’ It’s going to be a 48-minute battle, war, however you want to describe it.”

Coming off 87-76 and 118-93 wins, third-seeded Toronto leads the sixth-seeded Bucks three games to two.

Defending champion Cleveland awaits the series winner. The second-seeded Cavaliers have been off since sweeping No. 7 Indiana on Sunday.

The Raptors are hoping to end a recent stretch of futility when it comes to closing out series in Game 6 on the road. They lost to Indiana and Miami last year in Game 6 before rallying to win Game 7. Three years ago, they dropped Game 6 against Brooklyn before being beaten by the Nets in Game 7.

The Raptors have acknowledged being taken aback by the vocal crowd at the BMO Harris Bradley Center for Game 3, which turned into a 104-77 blowout loss for the visitors.

Casey says the answer to a hostile crowd is to outwork the home side.

“You’ve got to play through the noise,” he said. “Like everything else in this league, you’ve got to play above the noise.

“It’s going to be loud. I thought the first game there, it kind of put us back on our heels a little bit, along with their play .... I thought we were playing in mud most of the game. So we’ve got to be mentally and physically prepared as we were in Game 4 there.”