Bucks battle back, claim Game 1 victory
MILWAUKEE — Brook Lopez scored 13 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo added 24 and the Bucks rallied in the final minutes to beat the Raptors 108-100 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Wednesday night.
Lopez had a dunk with 2:20 left to put the Bucks ahead for good, added a 3-pointer on the next Bucks possession to push the lead to four and the team that finished the regular season with the NBA’s best record — after trailing for the overwhelming majority of the game — did just enough in the final minutes to grab the series lead.
Malcolm Brogdon scored 15 and Nikola Mirotic had 13 for the Bucks, who closed the game on a 10-0 run.
Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points and Kyle Lowry added 30 for the Raptors, who led by as many as 13 early and took an 83-76 lead into the final quarter.
Lopez added 11 rebounds for the Bucks, who had three players post double- doubles. Antetokounmpo had 14 rebounds and Khris Middleton finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Bucks, who now are 9-1 in this postseason.
The Bucks trailed for 37 of the game’s 48 minutes.
Didn’t matter. They stayed just close enough until they could finish with a serious kick. The Raptors missed their last eight shots and were outscored 32-17 in the fourth quarter.
Pascal Siakam scored 15 for the Raptors, including a 3-pointer over Antetokounmpo to end the third quarter and give the visitors a seven-point lead with 12 minutes left. It unraveled quickly from there. “Total team effort,” Lopez said. With the chants of the Bucks’ motto — “Fear the deer! Fear the deer!” — bouncing throughout the building, the team came out flying. The flurry was brief.
The Bucks missed seven consecutive shots, the Raptors made four 3-pointers in a span of three minutes, and that all helped become a 16-0 run by the Raptors that turned an early 8-3 deficit into a 19-8 edge. The lead got as big as 13 later in the quarter on a fadeaway jumper by Leonard, and the Raptors held the lead the rest of the half.
The Bucks had a chance to take their first lead since the opening minutes when Antetokounmpo went to the line for a pair of free throws with 8:17 left in the third and his team down by only one. He missed both and the Raptors peeled off the next nine points to rebuild what then was a 10-point lead again.
But the Raptors shot 5-for-22 in the fourth, and the Bucks finally reclaimed the lead.