The Toronto Raptors have made it clear: They’re not going to make this easy.
On several occasions in their Game 2 victory on Tuesday, they looked to be gearing up to take control, only to cede it immediately. Each run was followed by a Milwaukee Bucks push that pulled things even, or close enough to it to cause the game-long anxious energy in the Air Canada Centre to fester over the court. They maybe didn’t have to put themselves in a position for some late-game heroics
That the Raptors pulled it out and evened the series at 1-1 is of monumental importance to the shape of the series. Just don’t expect it to get any easier from here.
Kyle Lowry Over Your Bad Takes and Disloyalty
Trade Kyle Lowry? To the dude who had that sign in Jurassic Park before the game: Consider yourself waived. Lowry entered Game 2 with serious questions about where his head may be at, whether he could get shots off against the length of the Bucks, and if a 45-game playoff sample was beginning to suggest maybe he’s just not built for this atmosphere (or for a 100-game season).
For a night, he answered any and all questions and doubts with an emphatic performance. Lowry was masterful in the first half and would close things out by hitting a dagger of a long two to extend the lead to four in the game’s closing seconds. He finished with 22 points on 12 field-goal attempts, added four rebounds, five assists, and three steals, and was a plus-7, the second-best mark of any player in the game.
“Just playing,” Lowry said of the change in performance. “Going out there and taking my shots. Being aggressive. My teammates challenged me, like I said before, and I got to the free-throw line nine times. Got aggressive early and the second half, DeMar kind of got himself going. So we balanced well tonight. For me, it was just going out there and playing.”
There was obviously some trepidation entering this one given the extent of his Game 1 struggles and the fact that he’s only a few games removed from a return following surgery. In the time leading up to Game 2, Lowry was fairly hard on himself and said some…interesting things publicly, but DeRozan and Casey gave him the space he needed, with DeRozan saying he said “nothing” to Lowry and Casey saying more or less the same. Still, they had faith.
*It’s just his competitive edge. He’s one of those guys that’s just a competitor, ” head coach Dwane Casey said of not saying much to Lowry before the game. “Being with him over these years, I’ve seen him be in the trenches with him before. He’s always bounced back. That’s just who he is. He’s a competitor. He’s a fighter. I just knew that he wasn’t going to be satisfied with the way he played in the first game. He’s human. Everyone has a night like that. We just can’t panic every time a guy like that has a tough night.”
Early on, it looked like maybe the Bucks’ length was precluding Lowry from attacking like he normally would. He tried to draw contact from Khris Middleton on a baseline drive but couldn’t stick the layup. He passed up a decent look at the rim to get DeMar DeRozan an even better one. He got blocked by Malcolm Brogdon. There were a few other instances, too. But once Lowry got going, thanks in part to a couple of switches onto Spencer Hawes, he seemed to put any of that behind him, even after Hawes got one back on him with a block inside.
“That’s the way they play,” Lowry said of the drive-and-kick approach. “They kinda make you get in there, they all come to the ball, you gotta kick out.”
That Lowry got to cap his night with a major dagger – on a play designed for DeRozan, no less – was a nice cherry. Lowry isn’t out of the woods yet, necessarily, because the Raptors aren’t out of the woods. But this was a major step in the right direction and likely a big weight off of his shoulders. Plus, we can stop talking about how bad one of the team’s best players ever is.
Adjusting – Ball movement, rotation, Utes
Toronto seemed to unlock something in the first half that they’ll need to go back and look at more closely, with a more democratic offense with a bit more ball movement seeming to up the defensive intensity at the other end and make Lowry a little more comfortable facilitating against a scattered defense.
“We tried to do some things to try to help him get open a little bit better,” Casey said, declining to point out what, specifically, he meant outside of shooters hitting shots.
He also only called it “somewhat” effective, taking issue with the team’s ball movement as they coughed up a lead in the third. Toronto had 12 assists on 17 first-half field goals and 12 on 20 in the second half, but Milwaukee’s 20-11 run over the last six minutes of the third saw Toronto muster just two, with four turnovers. They fell back into old habits a bit, and it almost bit them.
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That strong first-half ball movement also included appearances by Jakob Poeltl and Delon Wright, who both contributed some solid minutes. Poeltl’s presence was due in part to Jonas Valanciunas’ foul trouble and Ibaka’s ankle, and while I thought maybe Lucas Nogueira’s passing would get him the first look here, it shouldn’t surprise that Poeltl remains ahead in the rotation. (The team briefly went with Patrick Patterson at the five, too, something they might try for again in Game 3.)
Wright, on the other hand, may have made a more permanent case for inclusion in Casey’s plans. He turned in eight solid minutes, proving less of a defensive post-up threat than Cory Joseph and making some heady, Delon Wright-style plays offensively. Don’t even look at the box score (three assists, zero points) for Wright’s contributions. He was good, and he’s probably going to play Thursday.
“It was the plan coming in,” Casey said of using the young players. “I just thought he and Jakob both, there were times in the second quarter when were making substitutions to give guys a blow that he could come in and create. I thought he did an excellent job of coming in and creating shots, creating opportunities.”
Casey also mentioned that Norman Powell will have a role in this series, too.
Injury Updates – Dead Man Blocking
Serge Ibaka shook off a shaky first half to turn in a monster effort in the second. That sprained ankle might give him a bit of trouble moving forward, but whatever treatment he got at halftime seemed to work, and I would like some for myself.
“I thought his ankle loosened up a little bit in the second half,” Casey said. “We knew he was a little gimpy in the first half, we were mindful of it, it’s why we got Jakob in and gave him some minutes but in the second half, I thought it got warmer and looser and he got his adrenaline going and was able to play on it…That’s a tough thing to fight through.”
That Ibaka played and played well was paramount, as he’s probably been the team’s best two-way player through two games. His presence at the rim and ability to make smaller, switchier lineups more playable opens up plenty of options for Casey. He finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and two blocks that felt like twenty, and him coming through really seemed to fire up the tram for their third-quarter run and fourth-quarter stand.
“It’s big. Just getting out there, being a solider, doing the things he was able to do tonight for us, especially defensively,” DeRozan said. “He hit some key shots in the fourth quarter. He got us going, playing through that sore ankle, and without him, we wouldn’t have got this win tonight.”
There’s no indication there are any other injuries on either side.
Lineup Notes
- Despite what some will surely feel was the case thanks to a different group closing, the Raptors’ starters were actually just fine for a change. They got out to a nice defensive start in the first quarter and helped build a lead in the third, and that group was a plus-5 in 15 minutes overall. I believe that’s the first time this group has played to a positive rating in five games together now.
- Conversely, the Bucks starters were a minus-6 in 11 minutes.
- The Raptors closed with a group that didn’t play at all in Game 1, a Lowry-DeRozan-Tucker-Patterson-Ibaka look that appeared before the series like it would be their best fivesome against this opponent. They were just a plus-2 in six minutes, but considering the leverage and situation of those minutes, that’s a big win.
- The Lowry-and-bench group included Ibaka in this one, and they once again found a nice groove, with a plus-5 mark in eight minutes split over the second and fourth quarters.
- Interestingly, the only bad Raptors lineups were ones that played exceptionally short minutes – Casey was quick to pull the plug if something wasn’t working, and only one unit played more than one minute with a negative rating (a -1 in three minutes for a DeRozan-Ibaka-bench group).
- The Bucks’ starters with Dellavedova in place of Snell remains a problematic group thanks to the length, shooting, and pair of guards who can screen effectively. They were a plus-5 in nine minutes.
Assorted
- In talking about the competitiveness in the Eastern Conference playoffs, Dwane Casey offered this: “There’s no easy sisters in the East.”
- Bismack Biyombo was visiting in the Raptors’ locker room after the game, though sadly, he declined to speak to media and give us all one of last year’s incredible philosophical talks.
- Just a point worth noting: Results can skew process. The Raptors were *better* in Game 1 than the final score suggests, having shot poorly on threes and with Antetokounmpo shooting fire from mid-range. They also maybe weren’t this good in Game 2,, as they shot 48.3 percent on their threes. The Bucks shot 47.8 percent, too, so maybe it was just a night where the rims were widened. In any case, don’t sell yourself too hard on this being a big turnaround – the teams have played very closely, in qualitative terms, through a pair of games. Toronto should be better, but they haven’t been with any consistency yet, so this is still very much a series.
