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Practice news & notes: Antetokounmpo is ‘not bad’ and also ‘really good’

We have a hot take from Kyle Lowry.

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Raptors Republic is not traveling with the Toronto Raptors for the first round of the playoffs, which means we weren’t at practice on Friday. Luckily, some on the beat were kind enough to pass along what was said at the afternoon session, anyway, so a thank you to them, and now a shift in format, with a quick smattering of quotes.

We have a hot take from Kyle Lowry.

Excuse Lowry’s over-reaction to just three games, but he is on to something here. Giannis Antetokounmpo is having a pretty great series against the Toronto Raptors, averaging 23.7 points, 10.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists, two steals, and a block while shooting 55.8/42.9. It’s been fairly ridiculous, and the most startling thing about that stat line is that so much of his impact on the game isn’t even captured in the box score. Antetokounmpo is drawing two, sometimes three defenders, his cuts are turning the heads of multiple players, and his presence alone makes life much, much easier on the Bucks.

This is how it’s supposed to work with Milwaukee focusing so much attention on the Raptors’ stars, too, with three big exceptions: Lowry and DeMar DeRozan don’t defend like Antetokounmpo, Antetokounmpo doesn’t have to go up against Antetokounmpo, and the threat of Antetokounmpo in transition is scrambling possessions well into the shot clock, even when the Raptors defend well. The Raptors are only scoring 0.9 points per-possession when Antetokounmpo is on the floor. Not to beleaguer the point, but Antetokounmpo’s been great, the Raptors haven’t had much of an answer yet, and they’re not even playing well on their own side of things to even match up.

Antetokounmpo is going to take over the NBA sometime in the near future. It’s unfortunate to be on the wrong side of what appears to be a coming-of-age series in progress.

Are the Raptors worried?

“I’m chilling,” Lowry said. “New day. I didn’t sleep too much last night but I’m alive now and ready to get back to practice and get better and learn from the challenges we have come across in this series, and try to come out in Game 4 and get a win.”

Seriously, somebody please put “I didn’t sleep too much last night but I’m alive now” on my headstone when this series kills me. The quote is what it is – Lowry trying not to over react, trying to downplay any amount the Raptors may be rattled, and it may actually just be how he feels. Part of what helps the Raptors bounce back after terrible outings may be an ability to erase it quickly and come out fresh. At the very least, they have to remain confident.

“Nah, I don’t think confidence gets shaken,” DeMar DeRozan said. “If you’re a competitor, you can’t wait to get back out there and redeem yourself. I think that’s where we’re at, that’s personally where I’m at, more so than ever. Just get back out there, give ourselves another opportunity to tie this thing up.”

Head coach Dwane Casey isn’t losing confidence, either, though he conceded that he and his staff coached a bad game.

“We didn’t coach a good game, we didn’t play a good game, it’s all of us together. We’re all in it,” he said. “One game and it’s back to 2-2. It’s not about confidence. It’s about coming out here and playing with a purpose and force that you gotta have this time of year.”

They’re saying what they’re supposed to say. Nothing else was to be expected. You’ll take what you’ll take from it, as always in these situations.

On potential changes

DeRozan: “At this point, we’ve got to be willing and ready for whatever. If it’s going to be something that’s going to help, if it’s something going in a positive way, we have to be all for it.”

Casey: “We’ll see. You always have to evaluate where you are as a team, what they’re doing, how they’re matching up. We’ll make our decision tomorrow before the game.”

Lowry: “Coach is going to make his decision and ultimately we have to go with his decision. He is going to try and do things and put us in a better position to be successful so for us all we can do is roll with what they tell us to do. They put together a game plan and sometimes a game plan is what we follow and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Well, that’s certainly a quote from Lowry.

DeRozan is embarassed

Some good, honest stuff here from DeRozan on the loss:

“It’s frustrating, you don’t want to go out and lose the way we did,” he said. “We just got to use it as motivation, man. It’s embarrassing to lose like that, especially in the post-season, to play like that on both ends.”

And on the first playoff game of his career without a field goal:

“Tremendously personally. Like I said, it won’t be the outcome tomorrow,” he said. “Things happen, there’s a side of me that’s gonna come out after I feel like I let my team down and every individual out there feels the same way. It’s going to be a different team tomorrow.”

It better be.

Notes

  • Reasons for hope: The Raptors are still at 37 percent to win the series on FiveThirtyEight and 50 percent on ESPN’s BPI. The higher-seeded teams down 1-2 have still gone 45-77 in NBA history, so they win more than a third of the time. The Raptors are early 2-point underdogs in Game 4, though. Be an optimist at your own discretion.
  • Reasons for doom: You see Game 3?
  • Sorry this is so quick. I’m not there, the quotes are exactly what you’d expect, and, well, you’ve probably read enough about that one by now anyway. We’ll be back at 9 a.m. tomorrow with the full game preview.

And here’s one to send you into your weekend:

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