The road trip is almost over! The Toronto Raptors wrap up their five-game swing on Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks. Coming off of a great win in Houston, the Raptors actually have a chance to salvage a winning record on the trip. As bad as things may have felt of late, the Raptors really only have the one bad loss on their ledger (Sacramento), and the others all seem justifiable in retrospect. Taking three of five on pretty much any road trip is a positive outcome, and I think it was probably the goal for the Raptors heading in (OK, maybe 4-1, but it’s not bad).
That’s if they can take it. The Bucks are 6-7, but they’ve proven plucky and a little annoying against top competition. It’ll be nice for the Raptors to draw a below-average offense, but they’re also a quality defense, and generally a nice test of the Raptors’ remaining energy levels. What better way to spend a Friday night?
The game tips off at 8 on Sportsnet One and TSN 1050. You can check out the full game preview here.
Raptors updates
Based on the recent pattern, DeMarre Carroll should be good to go for this one, unless the rest plan calls for an extended break as this trip rounds out (he would have four days off). As we’ve settled into here, assume Carroll is playing until we hear otherwise. And he’s been playing really well of late! Giannis Antetkounmpo is a really tough matchup, though (for anyone), and I’d imagine the Raptors throw a lot of different looks his way. (As promised in the mini-mailbag today, here is your daily “this is probably a good matchup in which to use Norman Powell, but by-golly shrug, whose minutes do you cut to get him in there right now? If Powell gets in, I hope Rashad Vaughn does, too, so Powell can put him through the same ringer he did at pre-draft workouts.)
(Non-update: Carroll is playing.)
The Bucks present some fun challenges elsewhere, too. There are places for weaker defenders to hide, but beyond Antetokounpo, Jabari Parker presents a good matchup for rookie Pascal Siakam. Parker’s kind of emerging as a throw-back, but he’s shooting from outside a lot more and improving as a passer, giving Siakam and Patrick Patterson no easy option to try to force him into. Siakam continues to run into new challenge after new challenge, which should only help expedite the impressive curve he’s been developing upon already.
Casey trying to get Lowry's league-leading minutes down by taking him out two minutes earlier than usual in first and third quarters.
— Mike Ganter (@Mike_Ganter) November 26, 2016
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carroll, Terrence Ross
PF: Patrick Patterson, Pascal Siakam
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Lucas Nogueira, Jakob Poeltl
ASSIGNED: Fred VanVleet, Bruno Caboclo
OUT: Delon Wright, Jared Sullinger
Bucks updates
You know how at times in the past I’ve said to throw out these positional depth charts because a team uses players fluidly? Uhh, yeah. Throw it out for the Bucks, especially with Antetokounmpo working as the team’s primary ball-handler for long stretches and messing up the traditional alignments. They’re also enormous, so while the idea of players playing up and down the lineup is generally associated with smaller looks, the Bucks almost always have a lot of length and size on the floor. When Mirza Teletovic is occasionally the de facto three, you know you’re playing weird.
What we do know is that the Bucks will throw a lot of length at DeMar DeRozan. Remember, it’s been size, not speed, that’s given DeRozan trouble in the past. Tony Snell might get a crack in order to keep Antetokounmpo fresh for the offensive end, but at some point the Bucks are going to turn to their young star to try to bottle the 30-point machine up. That could shift some of the onus on to Jonas Valanciunas to bully the enticing but slender John Henson inside, because Kyle Lowry’s going to be dealing with a second consecutive pest at the point. Everyone’s favorite 2015-16 trade target, Greg Monroe, has fallen out of the rotation almost entirely, by the way.
PG: Matthew Dellavedova, Malcolm Brogdon, Jason Terry
SG: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rashad Vaughn
SF: Tony Snell
PF: Jabari Parker, Mirza Teletovic, Michael Beasley, Steve Novak
C: Miles Plumlee, John Henson, Greg Monroe, Thon Maker
ASSIGNED: None, because these dudes drafted Thon Maker without a team to assign him to (yes, his extremely small-sample numbers are great, and if you believe in that, I’d like to trade you one Jake Layman for a first).
OUT: Khris Middleton
Assorted
- Depending on what time the Raptors get back tonight, I’d expect Jakob Poeltl to be assigned for tomorrow’s Raptors 905 game. With the big-league club off until Monday and likely scheduled for a light day Saturday, it’d be a chance for Poeltl to get more run than he’s got in weeks, even if he just comes down and plays spot minutes around Yanick Moreira and Edy Tavares.
- Delon Wright has been shooting for two weeks and is on track to be cleared for a return by the time 2017 starts, per Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun. I caught up with Wright a bit the other week, and he was feeling pretty positive about how things were progressing. He’s also quite excited for a potential 905 rehab stint, “Like baseball,” as he put it. It’s unclear if that Jan. 1 date is before or after said rehab stint, but based on earlier discussions, I would guess the 905’s home-stand Dec. 27, Dec. 29, Jan. 2, and Jan. 4 would be the games he’s looking to get into, as the Raptors are on the road during that stretch anyway.
- If you were wondering who catered the Raptors’ Thanksgiving celebration yesterday:
Kyle Lowry brought in USA Basketball chef Shawn Loving to do Thanksgiving Day meal for the team Thursday night. Meal was a huge hit.
— Mike Ganter (@Mike_Ganter) November 25, 2016
- I’ve got your reaction podcast tonight instead of Will. Hopefully it’s a cheerful one instead of me just trying to get out of here and to the liquor.
The line
The Raptors opened as 3.5-point favorites and the line nudged down to Raptors -3, roughly what I expected when Will and I were discussing the upcoming stretch on the podcast this week. The over-under has come down from 212 to 207.5, too, which makes sense since that opening mark was kind of bananas (the game may well end up there, but as a starting point, no way). Assuming the Raptors aren’t looking ahead to a long stretch at home, they should be in good shape here. They’re better than the Bucks.
Raptors 106, Bucks 102
