If you’re the Toronto Raptors, 7 p.m. probably can’t come soon enough. Following a disastrous Game 1 effort, a two-day break has left them to stew in their mistakes without the chance to correct them in actual game action and right the ship. This isn’t new, of course, and everyone – fans, players, coaches, media – appear tired of talking about the team’s consistent need to be punched in the mouth before dialling in. The extended break should have the Raptors champing at the bit when the ball’s rolled in on Tuesday for Game 2.
The Milwaukee Bucks, though, aren’t going to just roll over. All of the talk earlier in the day from Milwaukee’s side was about knowing what’s coming from Toronto and answering in kind, or even beating them to the punch. The Bucks are surely aware that taking two in Toronto would give them a commanding lead of the series heading home and, while they won’t say it, could threaten the Raptors’ psyche. Toronto knows they can always bounce back from these poor starts – you don’t lead the league in double-digit comebacks twice in a row otherwise – and Milwaukee will look to pose the question of “what if you can’t, though?”
What feels like forever later, it’s time for the next salvo.
The game tips off at 7 on NBA TV (Spero Dedes, Grant Hill, Richard Hamilton, and Jennifer Hale) and TSN on TV and on TSN 1050 on radio. You can check out the full game preview here. Your officials are Mike Callahan, Bill Kennedy, and Mark Lindsay.
Required reading
Here’s what you need ahead of Game 2, assuming you haven’t been keeping up.
- Game 1 recap, Game 1 video breakdown, Game 1 mailbag, Game 2 preview.
- All the news & notes from each pre-game, post-game, practice, and shootaround.
- Over at Vice, I wrote about the Raptors’ offensive struggles in Game 1.
- Over at The Athletic, I wrote about the problems Matthew Dellavedova presented as a screener in Game 1.
- Raptors Republic readers can get 20 percent off a subscription by using this link.
- Also at The Athletic, Eric Koreen and I discussed potential Game 2 adjustments and rotation tweaks.
- Here’s John Schuhmann on the Raptors’ slow starts.
- Impressed by Macolm Brogdon? Read our good pal James Herbert on his Rookie of the Year candidacy.
- He’s got the No. 2 odds after Dario Saric, per SportsBettingDime’s award primer.
Raptors updates
In the time between games, Dwane Casey was speaking like a man with faith in his crew but running thin on patience. He comes under criticism for being rigid or reactionary (these things would struggle to both be true), and his between-game adjustments in last year’s postseason were really strong. Just because he hasn’t talked up any shifts in scheme or rotation doesn’t mean adjustments aren’t coming – he’s not going to advertise them, and he was talking like he has his starting lineup on a very short leash moving forward. And he specifically mentioned potentially using younger players if the main guys don’t get it done.
Of course, a lot of this will flow from whether or not Serge Ibaka can play.
Ibaka is dealing with an ankle sprain suffered Saturday, missed practice Monday, and went through shootaround Tuesday. Casey said Ibaka “should be able to go” at his pre-game media availability but said Ibaka was still working out to test the ankle and see for sure if he’d be able to play. I’d be pretty surprised if he doesn’t go given his history of playing through things in the playoffs, but check back before tip-off for confirmation.
UPDATE: Ibaka plays and starts, so Siakam and Caboclo are inactive again.
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carrol, P.J. Tucker, Bruno Caboclo
PF: Serge Ibaka, Patrick Patterson, Pascal Siakam
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira
TBD: Serge Ibaka
ASSIGNED: None
OUT: None
Bucks updates
There weren’t a lot of surprises with the Bucks’ Game 1 rotations, though there were a few things of note. Malcolm Brogdon and Matthew Dellavedova played more together than maybe expected. Spencer Hawes was confirmed as the third center over John Henson. Rashad Vaughn is the 13th man over Gary Payton II. The most important takeaway for Milwaukee, though, was that at least for a night, starting Thon Maker at center looked like it could be just fine – the rookie was a huge factor in the third quarter and finished the game a plus-3 in 15 minutes
“I think for Thon, it’s his rookie season, he’s going to make mistakes, but his energy and effort are something that he can control,” Jason Kidd said at shootaround. “I thought he did a great job in Game 1, and he was a big influence in that second half, in that third quarter. Just his composure, being able to do the things that we’re asking him to do, we’re not putting any pressure on him. We just want for him to be himself, and stay in character, and he did that in Game 1. I think his energy rubs off on everybody, so hopefully what he did in Game 1 is something he can bottle up in Game 2.”
Most notably, the Bucks grabbed 54.8 percent of available rebounds with Maker on the court, the best mark on the team. He doesn’t even have to do that much to make him playable. Expect Kidd to come out with the same rotation until the Raptors force a change.
PG: Malcolm Brogdon, Matthew Dellavedova, Gary Payton II
SG: Tony Snell, Jason Terry, Rashad Vaughn
SF: Khris Middleton, Michael Beasley
PF: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mirza Teletovic
C: Thon Maker, Greg Monroe, Spencer Hawes, John Henson
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: None
OUT: Jabari Parker
Pre-game news and notes
- Asked whether or not he talks to Kyle Lowry before a game like this after his shaky Game 1, Casey offered an interesting look into the player-coach dynamic: “No. You know, guys, we’ve had how many games this year? Some good games, bad games. You kinda know when to go to a guy and when not to,” he said. “He’s a self-starter. He understands the situation and I’ll be very shocked if he doesn’t come out…I think he’ll play better and I think we’ll play better as a team.”
- The Bucks have talked a lot today about how, while their defense was very good, they thought the Raptors missed shots they should be expected to make moving forward. Basically, the Bucks aren’t patting themselves on the back and resting on their defense holding a good shot-making team in check once again.
- “That was probably our best defense of the year. We would love to duplicate that, but we know each game is gonna have a different flow,” head coach Jason Kidd said. “We have to expect their best…We have to be desperate tonight.”
- An interesting note from Kidd on Maker: The lack of a D-League franchise played a factor in his role, as the team had nowhere domestic to send him with control over his growth, didn’t want to send him overseas, and didn’t want it to be a “wasted” year. It sounds like they settled on starting him to ratchet up his learning curve, but I’d guess it also has to do with it being the easiest way to work him into the rotation for a few minutes each half without disrupting much.
- There was some thought that could shift come playoff time, when development takes a backseat. Kidd felt differently. “We’re not gonna change. What he’s done, he’s earned the opportunity to start,” he said.
- Bruno Caboclo was recalled to watch the game in street clothes. He’ll be back down with the 905 for their Game 2 tomorrow, probably with Pascal Siakam.
Assorted
- The Raptors will pick 23rd in the NBA Draft.
- Edy Tavares has been named D-League Defensive Player of the Year.
- Kevin Pelton of ESPN provides us this nice nugget: “Based on the regular-season point differential of the Raptors and their opponents, we’d expect about a 0.4 percent (or 1 in 238) chance of Toronto losing four home playoff openers in a row by random chance (and 1 in 880 if we include losing to the Miami Heat in Game 1 of last year’s conference semifinals).” Woof.
- The NBA will hold their drawing to break ties in draft seeding tonight. The Raptors will pick somewhere between 23rd and 25th, and we’ll know tonight exactly where.
- I’ve been posting occasional pics and quotes to my Instagram Story, if you want to follow along there, too. Here’s a picture of the shirts for tonight:
Shirts for tonight pic.twitter.com/0V7yN4rv5w
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) April 18, 2017
- Need a reason to hate on the Bucks?
Since the @Bucks are in the #NBAPlayoffs tonight, we made a special hat to give to the @POTUS. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/qMNvFXsb4G
— Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) April 18, 2017
The line
Game 1: Raptors -7.5 (Bucks 97, Raptors 83)
Game 2: Raptors -8
Series: Raptors -165 (implied probability of 62 percent; opened at Raptors -350 [77.8 percent])
The Raptors opened as 7-point favorites and the line moved to eight throughout the day. This suggests something about the faith in Toronto’s bounce-back potential and Serge Ibaka’s ankle, as it’s an even stronger line than the opener. ESPN’s BPI is still giving the Raptors a 62-percent chance at winning the series, for what that’s worth, and was mentioned earlier, teams with home court advantage and an 0-1 hole are still nearly .500 in series. The over-under is way down at 194 coming off of a game with a 180 total.
