Bucks eliminated by Raptors’ late run
A frantic comeback by the Milwaukee Bucks came up just short as they fell, 92-89, to the Toronto Raptors and were eliminated in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series on Thursday night.
The Bucks seemed dead midway through the third quarter, trailing by 25 points in front of a quiet BMO Harris Bradley Center crowd.
But Milwaukee started forcing turnovers and scoring, twice taking the lead before the Raptors recovered just in time. Third-seeded Toronto won the final three games of the series and prevailed in six
games,
sending it to the Eastern Conference semifinals against defending NBA champion Cleveland.
Bucks coach Jason Kidd was gratified with the way his team responded in the fourth quarter, but Toronto went on 9-0 run after trailing, 82-80,
on Greg Monroe’s basket with 2:29 remaining.
“Both teams played their hearts out,” Kidd said. “We always talk about the little things, and for us it comes down to free throws. It’s not that hard. We don’t need to overanalyze this; we got to the stripe and we just couldn’t capitalize on that.
“It was a well-fought series. Both teams fought as hard as they could and Toronto was the better team.”
But the Bucks went down swinging and listened to what Kidd told them on the bench after they fell so far behind.
“The one thing I said over and over when we were down, ‘It’s going to hurt if you want to win,’ ” Kidd said. “I think they understood after the game what that comment meant.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a playoff-high 34 points while playing all but 81 seconds of the game, and Khris Middleton added 19 points and five assists despite being quite ill the last few days.
“The opportunity presented itself and we played him as much as we could,” Kidd said of the Greek Freak.
DeMar DeRozan paced Toronto with 32 points and Kyle Lowry had 13. Raptors coach Dwane Casey was relieved his team held its composure.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Casey said. “To close out on the road is one of the hardest things to do in the NBA.”
The Raptors trailed early as Antetokounmpo scored the first eight points for the Bucks and Milwaukee had a quick six-point lead.
But Toronto gradually took control and led, 5138, at halftime behind 16 points from DeRozan. The Raptors shot 46.3% from the field (19 of 41) and limited the Bucks to 35.9% shooting (14 of 39).
The Bucks trailed by as many as 25 in the third quarter before going on a 15-3 run to end the quarter,.
Antetokounmpo, Matthew Dellavedova and Middleton made threepointers and Tony Snell scored a layup to cut the Bucks’ deficit to 74-61 entering the final quarter.
Milwaukee kept coming in the fourth quarter, extending the run to 20-3 before Lowry scored off a scramble under the basket.
Kidd picked up a technical foul after a long discussion with referee Marc Davis and the Bucks went down by 12.
But a basket by Jason Terry and two free throws by Greg Monroe cut the deficit to 78-70.
Antetokounmpo then blocked a shot by DeRozan, and Dellavedova grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled. The Bucks guard hit 1 of 2 foul shots.
Antetokounmpo split 3 of 6 free throws as the Bucks kept forcing turnovers and getting fouled.
Middleton then drilled a three-pointer and was fouled by Norman Powell. The Bucks forward missed the free throw and Toronto still led, 78-77.
Terry then sank a three-pointer from the wing to give the Bucks an 80-78 lead with 3:06 remaining, prompting a Raptors timeout.
A basket by Monroe with 2:29 left gave the Bucks an 82-80 lead, but Toronto went on its 9-0 run sparked by a goahead three-pointer from guard Cory Joseph.
DeRozan dunked with 48.7 seconds left after he got past Thon Maker. That gave Toronto an 8782 lead.
Two free throws by Joseph made it 89-82, but Middleton was fouled by Serge Ibaka on a threepoint try and made 2 of 3 free throws.
A three-pointer by Terry cut the Bucks’ deficit to 89-87 with 19.4 seconds left.
The Bucks fouled DeRozan and he made only 1 of 2 free throws, but instead of looking for a three-pointer, Antetokounmpo dunked with 3.5 seconds left.
Milwaukee fouled, but DeRozan made both. Snell’s inbounds pass was stolen by Patrick Patterson and DeRozan threw the ball up.