NOT GOING AWAY
For the second time this season, Bucks show the Raptors they are a serious contender
TORONTO — It’s not a major revelation but these Milwaukee Bucks are going to be a concern for the Toronto Raptors for the next five months.
They are going to be a much bigger pain in the backside if Kyle Lowry continues on his present pace and Brook Lopez keeps knocking down threes like his actual name is Korver and not Lopez.
Lowry’s shot remained AWOL on Sunday but perhaps the bigger concern was that he only attempted five in total in a game that went down to the wire with the Bucks eking out a 104-99 win.
The Bucks, who already won the first matchup between these two teams a month and a half ago made it 2-0 in the season series with the tooth-and-nail victory, this time with both Kawhi
Leonard and Giannis Antetokounmpo actually in uniform and this time on Toronto’s home court.
But it wasn’t really either of the NBA royalty family members that made the biggest difference in this one.
It was more a collective by both teams.
The biggest shots of the night belonged to Malcolm Brogdon, the Bucks former rookie of the year winner, now in his third season.
Brogdon erased a threepoint Toronto lead with a minute and change remaining that Leonard established with his only three-pointer make of the night.
But Brogdon wasn’t done. After a Lowry miss at the other end, his last 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 successful drive to the iron but the Bucks extended that one-point lead to three when Pascal Siakam lost Antetokounmpo on an in-bounds play allowing the Greek Freak an uncontested dunk.
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 front rim and was rebounded by the Bucks to basically put the game away.
Toronto falls to 21-7 and have now lost two in a row for just the second time this year having dropped one in Brooklyn on Friday.
The main concern afterwards was Lowry and how to get him out of his funk.
“I feel like he should be a little bit more aggressive,” Leonard said of his teammate. “Our offence kind of allows everybody to be themselves and take their shots. It’s a lot of freedom. With that said, he’s gonna have some big games coming up. He’s missing ... shots, that’s why we play 82 games. Just a test for the playoffs. You just got to think down the road. If you have (tough) games like this, just buy in and come into the next game. He’s working hard in practice with his shot. It’s gonna fall for him. He’ll probably hit seven in a row or something.”
Lowry hasn’t had a scoreless game since going 0-for-7 on March 17, 2013 in a loss to the Miami Heat. When it was pointed out to Lowry that 25 of his past 28 shots have come from behind the arc, Lowry admitted that had been troubling him as well.
“Yeah, I’ve gotta,” he said of being more aggressive going to the basket. “I was thinking about that tonight, and I just didn’t get an opportunity, or just didn’t do it, rather. I’ve gotta be a little bit more inside the paint, inside the arc. I definitely do. That’s a good point.”
The road only gets tougher for the Raptors now 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 in this one with 22 while Leonard had 20 and VanVleet 19.
The Bucks spread the scoring around nicely with Antetokounmpo and Lopez (he of the 5-for-8 from three) leading the way 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 has all but disappeared. CJ Miles has had a running battle finding his own all season with any consistency. Even steady Freddy VanVleet has been having issues of late getting it to drop.
So it was a welcome relief Sunday evening 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 pre-game when the subject all the recent troubles from that range were brought up.
By haltime 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 of them so not quite as efficient as VanVleet. Perhaps most encouraging was the above-the-break three from Miles who has been struggling for most of the season.
POWELL STILL IN LIMBO
Norm Powell has missed 16 games with a sublexation of his left shoulder and it appears it’s going to be at least four more and then some before he’s back. Powell appeared to be on the brink of a return based on his pregame workouts and even a mini four-on-four game following practice on Saturday.
But asked if Powell would be making his return on the upcoming four-game west coast road trip, Nurse said that was unlikely. “I think we were at a point where we thought he was getting closer but they don’t think he’s quite ready,” Nurse said. “The shoulder thing’s tricky. You gotta watch ’em, and I don’t think he’s made as much progress here recently as we’d hoped, I don’t think. I hope I’m wrong. I hope it’s a little better than it is. But it looked like it was trending to him being ready here in a few days like a week ago, but I don’t think it is.”