Raps head to second round
Toronto clinches series with 92-89 win against Milwaukee on Thursday night
MILWAUKEE — It was only fitting that the first time in history be as hard as that was Thursday night for the Raptors.
What began looking like a closeout game that would finally settle this Raptors’ Game 6 hex once and for all eventually got there but it was anything but easy.
Along the way the Raptors passed multiple tests, their composure tested to the limit what would become a series-clinching 92-89 win.
The Raptors have never won a potential clincher in six games until last night.
The Raptors though did survive and will open Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semi-final Monday in Cleveland against the defending NBA champs.
The early punch came, as expected, and like a grizzled veteran the Raptors took it flush on the chin.
In the past this might have unsettled the Raptors but these are not the Raptors who cower at the sight of an early deficit.
These Raptors may not be Cleveland battled-hardened but they have taken their knocks in the past and the combination of a hostile environment and a quck-starting opponent no longer phases them.
But the beginning.
No, that was just the first test and as it turned out the much lighter one than they would face in the fourth quarter.
The real test came in the second half when the Raptors had built the lead up to 25 and looked home and cooled out only to watch the Bucks chip away at the lead as the Raptors offence, which had been running angst was just so efficiently bogged down like it never has before.
Even at the end of three quarters the lead was still 13 and while momentum had shifted back to the home side and the crowd which had been silenced early was back at full roar it still felt like there was a cushion there the Raptors were more than capable of riding home and finally breaking that sixth game curse that the Raptors brought into this one.
Then the fourth quarter began and the real drama started.
Through the first nine minutes of the frame the Raptors would accumulate more fouls than they would points with the infractions up 7-4 and the Bucks well into the bonus.
The Bucks would eventually take a three-point lead and the crowd was defeaning.
Give the Bucks full credit for never quitting but then you have to give the Raptors their same due for not letting go of the rope.
Cory Joseph came on late in the game and provided a huge three pointer from the corner with nary a defender in sight as all the attention was on DeRozan and Lowry.
That three point lead would extend to five when DeRozan in a drive as big as any he has made this season went right through the paint and ending with a monster throw-down by DeRozan.
The Bucks got it close again on a Jason Terry three and had one more chance when Antetokounmpo had the ball out beyond the three-point line with Lowry on him.
Antetokounmpo though showed his youth a litte and rather than take the potential game-tying three drove to the basket for an uncontested layup.
The ensuring foul on DeRozan with 3.1 seconds left followed with two more freebies and then a turnover on the inbound with DeRozan sending the ball high to the rafters in as much a sign of relief as celebration.
DeRozan would finish with a Raptors high 32 points, two shy of Antetokounmpo’s game high. The Greek Freak played all but two minutes of the game to get those 34.