The road trip is finally over, and despite tough nights in Sacramento, when the game was taken out of the Raptors’ control and in Los Angeles, when they just couldn’t keep up with the Clippers, the Raptors finished at 3-2 on the trip thanks to a strong effort in Friday nights’ 105-99 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks are the type of long, athletic and talented team that can be a tough out on any given night, and with the schedule having done no favors for Toronto in the last week and a half, this game easily could’ve gotten away from their tired legs, but they got another strong effort from the whole roster in the victory.
To start with the one negative for the Raptors, Bebe had his second straight off night, grabbing just one rebound to go with his four blocks and four fouls in 16 minutes. He’s proven through the early season that he belongs in the rotation, and has definitely earned his minutes, but the last two games he’s looked overmatched and he needs to find his composure again, because his athleticism and length gives the team a different look in the middle that helps to keep the energy up for the bench lineups. Maybe coming back home to Toronto and getting to spend some time with his new daughter will help him recharge and come out focused again as we head into the longest homestand of the year coming up, with 6 games at the ACC.
Going to the positives, there’s a lot to talk about. DeMarre Carroll and Patrick Patterson continued to hit their shots tonight, with each hitting 50% of their attempts from long range, Carroll 4-8 and Patterson 3-6. Carroll lead the team in plus/minus at +10, and he’s looked more and more like the Atlanta player who garnered the large contract two summers ago in recent days. These two players will be critical to the long-term success of the team, as they can both bring a lot of spacing and open up the floor for DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry to operate. Cory Joseph also had his second straight solid shooting night, scoring 9 points on 4-8 shooting.
Jonas Valanciunas’ line isn’t going to knock anyone’s socks off from tonight, but he gave a solid defensive effort against the big, long frontline of the Bucks, and although he only grabbed 6 rebounds, it felt like he was physical and present on the boards and his work played a role in the good rebounding nights for many players as he occupied a lot of Milwaukee bodies. He was able to find his offense as the night rolled on as well, including a nice seal in the post off a pick and roll where DeMar found him for an easy layup. While not a huge night for the big man, he did his job and made life easier for others, and he’ll have other nights where he can be the dominant presence that we’ve seen him capable of.
Terrence Ross was having what looked like an off night coming into the fourth quarter, shooting 0-2 with just a turnover for other contributions on the scoresheet, and in years past this would’ve been a sign that it just wasn’t his night. But this isn’t the same Ross this year, and he delivered another strong fourth quarter, contributing 8 points on 6 shots in the frame, including a personal 5-0 run when he hit a 3, then had a steal for a breakaway dunk on the next possession. He’s been dependable and consistent this year, hardly things you’d have expected to be said about the 5th year player. He also barely missed a putback dunk in the fourth quarter that would’ve been surely on every end of season highlight real had he managed to put it down.
As far as the two All-Stars, DeRozan and Lowry both proved why they’ve earned that honorific in this game, with Lowry dominating both early and late, hitting two three-pointers to open the game and then scoring 10 points on 4/6 shooting in the final frame. Lowry’s dependable and steady presence has been the one constant for the team over the course of the last few seasons, and it’s so comforting to know you’ll get these types of performances from him, where he seems to find ways to contribute whenever the game seems to get close.
DeRozan isn’t leading the league in scoring anymore, but that’s not an indictment of his game in any way. As his shot has begun to fail him at times, he’s become more of a distributor, and in the first half tonight he managed just 3/9 from the field, but was looking to create for others. This is my favorite version of DeMar, the one who lets the game come to him and uses the defensive attention he garners to keep everyone else involved when they have easy looks. His passing has been sublime, and at least to this writer, it feels like his teammates are more engaged when he has the ball because he’s shown his willingness to trust them in recent games. The whole team appears to be passing better, and it seems to start with DeMar. He also finished with 26 points on 9/18 shooting as he found his shot in yet another impressive third quarter, and he sealed the win with a spectacular pull-up jumper over a double team with 16 seconds to go.
The story of this game has to be that the Bucks worked hard and wouldn’t go away, constantly pulling the game back within reach whenever the Raptors looked to pull away, but the road team just wouldn’t let this one slip away, whether it was a big Kyle Lowry three-pointer from well beyond the line, a DeRozan contested pull-up that looked impossible and somehow found the bottom of the net, or one of the role players stepping up and hitting a big shot, Toronto was just too much tonight. Giannis Antetokounmpo is a budding superstar, and looked simply unstoppable when he set his mind on scoring, but the Raptors withstood that and put the road trip behind them. Hopefully the team can take the momentum from these last two big wins with them and build on that in the coming homestand.
