Bucks finish with a flourish to top Raptors
MILWAUKEE >> Brook Lopez scored 13 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo added 24 and the Milwaukee Bucks rallied in the final minutes to beat the Toronto 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 Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee, which 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 Milwaukee, which is now 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 Toronto, including a 3-pointer over Antetokounmpo to end the third quarter and give the Raptors a seven-point lead with
12 minutes left.
It unraveled quickly from there.
“Total team effort,” Lopez said.