Raptors enter playoffs on winning note
Toronto to face Milwaukee Bucks in opening round, possible rematch with Cavs on the horizon
CLEVELAND — And now it starts for real.
An 82-game regular season has determined Boston will have the Eastern Conference’s easiest road to the NBA Final while the Cavs and Raptors, who finished it off together here Wednesday night in a meaningless 98-83 win by the Raptors, will likely, though certainly not definitely, be seeing each other again with much more on the line in about a week and a half.
But first up for the Raptors is the Milwaukee Bucks, a young team light on playoff experience, but a team Dwane Casey is determined his charges won’t take lightly, regardless of the 12 wins by the Raps in the past 14 meetings between the two clubs.
Mention the Bucks to any NBA fan and the first thought is almost universally “The Greek Freak.”
Born Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Greek Freak has been one of he league’s feel-good stories this year, developing at a rate which most mere mortals could only dream.
He’s the Bucks leading scorer, their chief marketing tool, their biggest selling jersey — in short, he’s everything to the organization.
And he’ll be a focal point of the Raptors preparation for the Bucks, something that was already underway before they were locked in as the No. 6 seed and the first round partner for your No. 3 seeded Raptors Tuesday night by virtue of an Atlanta Hawks win in Charlotte.
Antetokounmpo is far from a finished product. He’s in just his fourth year, but made tremendous strides just this season from last.
“He’s a freak of nature for an athlete,” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said. “He reminds me so much of a young Magic Johnson as far as his length, his size, the way he can pass the ball, and Lord forbid he gets consistent on his jump shots. But his length and his ability to see the floor, his willingness to pass — he enjoys passing — and then his one-step from the top of the key to the rim laying it up or dunking it. That’s why he’s a freak. He’s totally different than anything else in our league.
Antetokounmpo is a 6-foot-11 poster child for the perfect basketball body. He has a wingspan of 7-foot-3, which shrinks angles for opposing attackers down to such tiny openings that few ever try to go around him. Offensively he has that quick twitch muscles and core stability that make first, second and third jumps effortless not to mention towering.
His boasts a 12-inch hand measured from tip for thumb to tip of pinky finger. The average male comes in at 7.4 inches, so palming a basketball, while tough for the average Joe, is no problem for Antetokounmpo.
The 15th overall selection of the 2013 draft, a guy who Raptors GM Masai Ujiri was high on but without a pick to draft him, though remains a guy without a trustworthy NBA jump shot.
The fact that he can take off from the free throw line and actually dunk a basketball with either hand makes up for a lot of that.
Without question, he’ll get plenty of attention from the Raptors, but he won’t be their only focus.
The X-factor in the series, as Casey calls him, will be Khris Middleton, the Bucks shooting guard who can stretch defences out to the threepoint line and make life in the paint much less congested for Antetokounmpo.
Middleton is also the kind of physical defender that makes life difficult for DeMar DeRozan.
But it’s his threat offensively that most concerns Casey.
“Middleton has added another shooter to that group,” Casey said. “He stretches the floor out, and him being a shooter, he’s created more space for Antetokounmpo, so that’s something that you have to be respectful of because he’s the X factor. He stretches the floor out in transition, shooting the three, oneon one he’s an excellent ISO player, so now, do you put your best defender on him or do you put your best defender on Antetokounmpo? He gives them another dimension offensively.”
But most concerning of all for Casey is the possibility his team comes into this one and takes the Bucks too lightly.
The Bucks are the type of team that gives the Raptors problems. They play hard from tip off to final horn, and if you allow it, they will physically dominate you.
“What we have to do is meet that force with our force,” Casey said. “We didn’t do that when we played that last game there (in Milwaukee, a 101-94 loss on March 4). We tiptoed around feeling sorry for ourselves after a back-to-back and they kicked our butt. They spanked us and took us to the woodshed. If we don’t go into this series with a sense of urgency, knowing how hard this team plays, and think it’s a wrap just because we show up, it’s not going to happen.”
The Raptors can expect to hear a lot of Casey telling them exactly that over the next few days as they prepare for the series opener this weekend.