This was a gut punch, even if it was one everyone seemed to jokingly be expecting. The Toronto Raptors had grown out of the constant fear of not actually being good, the spectre of their history shaken away in recent years. The Raptors and their fans were supposed to feel better this time around. Confident, even. The team was good and could potentially be great, they were once again a favorite, and now they had been through it a bunch.
And still, they came out and botched another Game 1 at home, punting home-court advantage of their first-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks right through the lengthy, outstretched uprights that are Giannis Antetokounmpo’s arms. The 97-83 final betrays how close the game was for most of the night but somehow also understates just how disappointing an effort it was.
This again?
The Raptors are now 1-11 in Game 1s all time, 0-9 in Game 1s that start a first round, 0-5 in Game 1s during this core’s four-year stretch, and 0-4 in those recent Game 1s that came at home. This may have been the worst loss of all of them, and there was no 12:30 excuse, or inexperience, or other intangible to blame it on. They had every advantage here, and they laid an absolute egg.
“I have no clue,” DeMar DeRozan said of the pattern. “If I had the answer than maybe we would have pulled it out tonight. But it’s something now we’re not unfamiliar with, being at this point. It’s never ideal but we’ve got to bounce back and understand we make it hard on ourself to come back and fight back even harder. But it’s on us. We don’t have no excuse.”
He’s right. This wasn’t an unlucky performance or just a cold shooting night. They completely gave in during the course of the second half, letting an eminently winnable game slip through their fingers. The Bucks obviously get credit for taking advantage and showing up prepared, but the Raptors lost this game more than Milwaukee won it, if that makes sense.
“Our second half was just abysmal,” head coach Dwane Casey said after the game. “We didn’t play with any pace, any rhythm, any movement. You got to give them credit for doing a good job defensively. We got to figure out how to get a better rhythm, a better pace, spacing once the ball gets in the half-court we got to get better movement. Our exchanges, don’t stand there and help their defence, all of the above. A lot of that led to a lot of tough shots, challenged shots but we were just totally out of rhythm in the second half and with that said we were still up seven.
“You keep playing that way it’s always going to bite you in the behind. That’s what happenedtonight.”
A big, big problem was the continued shaky early series play of Kyle Lowry, who shot 2-of-11 and scored just four points. Unlike last season when Lowry’s shooting struggles came with strong playmaking and a gritty defensive performance, he was just plain bad here. He dealt with foul trouble and then got passive on defense, he couldn’t find his way to the rim, and his 0-of-6 mark from long-range speaks to his frigidity with the jumper.
Here are Lowry’s Game 1s as a Raptor:
- 7-of-18, 22 points, 2014
- 2-of-10, 7 points, 2015
- 3-of-13, 11 points, 2016 round one
- 3-of-13, 7 points, 2016 round two
- 4-of-14, 8 points, 2016 round three
- 2-of-11, 4 points, 2017
That’s a total of 21-of-79 (26.6 percent) for an average of 9.83 points. It’s hard to say, even with a sample that’s grown as large as six games, whether this is anything more than noise. He was hurt in 2015 (back) and again in 2016 (elbow) and this was only his fifth game back from wrist surgery, so it may not be prescriptive. It is certainly a trend, though, and it’s tough to imagine Raptor fans having a ton of confidence if they make it to another Game 1 this year.
“We’re gonna go the way Kyle goes,” Casey said. “He’s our guy, he’s our All-Star, he makes a lot of decisions for us. He’s gotta continue to be aggressive, make or miss. He takes 15 shots, misses 15 shots, he’s still gotta take em. A lot of our stuff revolves around him being aggressive. He’s gotta continue to do that, or begin to do that.”
Need some positivity to go to bed with? He’s averaged 13.2 points on 31.4 percent in Game 2s. Progress! (It’s fine. It’s probably fine. I mean, it’s maybe fine, right?)
We the fourth
The Raptors were the league’s best fourth-quarter team, and it wasn’t particularly close. They once again led the league in double-digit comebacks with 21, and they had the best fourth-quarter net rating. That abandoned them in a major way here, as a five-point halftime lead turned into a five-point fourth-quarter deficit, and that only swelled from there.
All told, Toronto scored just 32 points int he second half and shot 4-of-17 with five turnovers in the fourth.
“We missed a lot of shots that we normally make,” DeRozan said. “We didn’t get over 20 in the final quarters in the second half, that’s unlike us. We shot 36 per cent, shots we normally make. But we can’t let that affect us getting back in transition. I think that’s when the Bucks took advantage of that and they pulled away with a lead.”
While it’s true that the Bucks got their offense going (they scored 51 points on 45 second-half possessions, including 14 fast-break points), the offense was the major issue here, with the Raptors scoring just 94.3 points per-100 possessions. The team thinks their shaky defense flowed from the offense, which makes sense given Milwaukee’s efficacy in transition, so shoring up the offense is priority one. To hear Casey tell it, that means executing better, not changing their stripes.
“There were assist opportunities there,” Casey said. “I don’t know if you’re gonna change your playing personality at this time of year…I don’t think you’re gonna change Kyle’s personality, DeMar’s personality…We’ll go in and make some adjustments, what they were doing to us, see what they were doing to us defensively. But my eyes tell me right now they weren’t doing anything we didn’t expect. We gotta make some adjustments to get some better shots, some easier shots, some freer shots, but it has nothing to do with that multiple effort on the defensive end.”
It will be interesting to see how the Raptors come out from a tactical standpoint in Game 2.
Injury Updates
Serge Ibaka had a bit of a scare early in the third quarter when his left foot landed on Giannis Antetokounmpo’s foot as Ibaka came down from shooting a three. He laid on the floor for a defensive possession and then limped to the bench during a timeout but ultimately stayed in the game. He was Toronto’s best player, so that was nice. These kind of plays should probably be fouls. The shooter has to have room to land.
Lineup Notes
- The “Lowry and bench” unit to start the second quarter included Valanciunas, Patterson, Tucker, and Joseph. As always, they went on a pretty major run, with a +5 marker in four minutes.
- They went with Carroll in Tucker’s spot here in the fourth, likely to keep Tucker fresh for the stretch run. It was less effective, as you’ll be shocked to learn (-3 in two minutes). Casey went away from it quickly.
- Lowry played eight minutes in the first, as is fairly usual. He sat briefly in the middle of the second, too, though, when DeRozan checked back in, because he had two fouls. He picked up a third and sat the final three minutes, too. He had the worst plus-minus (-22) on the team, a rarity even when he shot poorly last year.
- The Raptors turned those tables and got Antetokounmpo his fourth foul with 4:33 to play in the third (and were in the bonus), but they couldn’t take advantage. Milwaukee closed out the quarter on an 11-6 run.
- Casey rolled with what is a very good lineup in general for a long part of the fourth, but one that is untenable against Milwaukee’s size – Lowry-Joseph-DeRozan-Tucker-Ibaka. Eventually, he went to Powell in Joseph’s place. They just can’t have two point guards and DeRozan on the floor much together against Milwaukee’s best lineups, because there are too many ways for the Bucks to seek out post-up mismatches, something their offense is very good at finding. Middleton was 4-of-15 and yet a huge problem.
- “Khris didn’t have his typical offensive night but I thought he still had a big imprint on the game by passing, finding the open guys and the guys delivered,” Jason Kidd said.
- They were only a -1 in seven minutes, mind you.
- The Raptors did not use what I think is their best lineup in this series: Lowry-DeRozan-Tucker-Patterson-Ibaka.
- Milwaukee starters were a +7 in 14 minutes. Their Giannis-and-bench lineup (-7 in three minutes) was really their only abjectly ineffective one.
- Toronto starters were a -11 in 10 minutes, continuing a two-year long trend, it feels like.
Assorted
- The Raptors allowed fans to stay after the game and watch the remainder of the Leafs’ playoff game, which is a cool idea. Concessions were open, too, so it’s also a nice cash-grab. Had the Raptors won, I’d imagine more people would have jumped on the opportunity.
- Ethan Hawke was here in a tucked-in Kyle Lowry jersey, so the Raptors presented him with an Ethan Hawke jersey. Ok! By the way, where you at, Drake?
- Game 2 goes Tuesday at 7 at home. Let’s try not to drink too much bleach between then and now. Coors Light will do instead.
- “Doesn’t matter. One day, two days, next day, just be prepared,” P.J. Tucker said. “We didn’t go out and execute our plan. Hopefully next game we will.
Note: I have no idea why Disqus has rendered comments unavailable on two posts today. It’s an issue on their end, apparently. Apologies for that, but comment away on the Quick Reaction, and I’ll be back with the recap at 9am.
