Mighty Bucks will be looking to send Raptors a message
Main events usually take place on Saturday nights, but there’s a doozy on tap for Tuesday evening in Toronto.
The NBA leading Milwaukee Bucks are in town to face the defending champs. Still smarting from blowing a 2-0 series lead over Toronto in the conference final last season, Milwaukee has rampaged through the schedule so far this campaign, threatening to become just the third club ever to win 70 games.
The Bucks boasted an .857 winning percentage ahead of Monday’s game in Washington, the third-best ever behind only Golden State’s .890 mark in 2016 and Chicago’s .878 in 1996.
Toronto hasn’t seen Milwaukee and reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo since losing to them in early November.
“It’s stability. It’s every night,” Raptors guard Fred Vanvleet told Postmedia after Sunday’s blowout win over Indiana.
“You look at those guys
(Bucks), I don’t remember them losing. It just feels like, I don’t remember any of their losses.”
Speaking like he was inside the Bucks’ locker-room, Vanvleet added:
“Every night you’ve got a shot and that’s because of the way you play defence and you share the ball and make some shots and you’re dangerous.”
But the Raptors try to do those same things.
“I watch them play and they win every game by 20 points. I don’t know what to make of it other than nobody can even come close to them,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse.
“I don’t know what their margin of error is, but when I do watch them, it’s boring. It’s over by halftime and nobody ever really makes a threat. They’re really good. They’ve really got it going.
“They’ve got more depth than a year ago, more experience than a year ago, more size than a year ago, they’ve really got it going. It will be a challenge, but we’ll be OK,” Nurse said of the first of three meetings between the Eastern Conference powers over the next five weeks.
Milwaukee surrenders a minuscule 101.6 points per 100 possessions, the best mark by any team since 2015-16, when the NBA was a much lower-scoring place.
Vanvleet isn’t surprised that Toronto boasts the league’s second-best defence (104.5 points allowed per 100 possessions), even in a time when all basketball people talk about is the offensive explosion that’s been powered by the three-point revolution.
“Defence wins championships is the phrase — and that’s not just borne out of randomness,” Vanvleet told Postmedia.
“There’s something to that. I think more so, it just boils down to do you (care) enough every night. Can you muster up the intensity and the effort that it takes. And it’s hard,” he said.
“But I think it’s just that commitment to going out there, laying it on the line. Everybody plays defence in the playoffs, but can you do it every night in the regular season? Some teams can, some teams can’t.”
Both the mighty Bucks and overachieving Raptors have proven that they can do just that. It will be interesting to see what transpires on Tuesday.
The last time Milwaukee travelled across the border, both Antetokounmpo and fellow all-star Khris Middleton were held under 40 per cent shooting by Toronto’s defence, while Vanvleet and Kyle Lowry scored three-pointers in front of a delirious crowd, powering the Raptors into the NBA Finals for the first time.
Memories of that night are likely seared into the brains of the Bucks players. They’ll be looking to make a statement on Tuesday.
“They’re a well-coached team and a well-oiled machine, but all we can do is worry about ourselves,” Lowry said.