Casey looking for way to control Freak
Serge Ibaka gets dunked on about as often as Matthew Dellavedova causes an opposing coach to lose sleep.
The latter is a reference to the Toronto Raptors’ Dwane Casey, who, when asked if Dellavedova, the Milwaukee Bucks’ backup point guard, was in his team’s head, he all but scoffed at the notion. The former actually happened.
The dunker was Giannis Antetokounmpo, the man who in Game 1 almost re-wrote the Bucks slogan from Fear the Deer to Fear the Freak. That is how game-changing he was as the Bucks won the series opener — and that is why the Raptors spent the better part of two days focusing what sounded like almost exclusively on the Greek Freak.
Ibaka knows exactly why he got dunked on, and already knows how to avoid it again.
“I remember that play,” Ibaka said, sounding like a guy who has been thinking about that one play a lot. “A guy like him, when you switch, you have to be up. I was down (waiting for him at the rim). It’s not just him, anybody in the league, when somebody is coming full speed, it’s tough.”
Ibaka, who had a monster Game 1 himself with 19 points and 14 rebounds, isn’t going to stop him alone. It’s going to have to be a team effort.
Between them Ibaka, P.J. Tucker and DeMarre Carroll would have to be considered the top three defenders on the Toronto roster. But even with those three bodies in front of him at one point in Game 1, Antetokounmpo found a way through and scored.
“We can do better on both ends of the floor,” Ibaka said. “I think the key is about defence: communication, getting back on defence and being physical.”
Midway through the third quarter, Ibaka came down on Antetokounmpo’s foot and was left writhing in pain. Ibaka stayed in the game, and Casey is confident he will be able to play Tuesday.
“I’ve been there before. This is not the first time I’ve sprained an ankle,” Ibaka said. “So things can change. Tomorrow I can be 100 per cent.”