21-7 (the Buck didn’t stop in Toronto)
10 things I saw from Raptors-Bucks (Dec. 11) – The Defeated
Brainfart: However, Nurse also cost the Raptors to start the fourth when he rolled out an all-bench lineup that allowed a 6–0 run in 90 seconds before Nurse put Siakam back into the game. The second unit remains a mess, they don’t even know what play they’re running half the time, and they’re toast when Jonas Valanciunas doesn’t have it going.
Bucks 104, Raptors 99: Milwaukee wins anticipated rematch – Journal Sentinel
When the game was in the balance after Raptors star Kawhi Leonard scored nine of his 20 points to carry Toronto back from an 11-point deficit early in the fourth quarter all the way to a three-point lead with under 90 seconds to go, no points were bigger than Brogdon’s.
A minute removed from Leonard’s biggest shot – a three-pointer over Lopez that got a shooter’s bounce and put the Raptors ahead 97-94 – Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton drove baseline looking to make something happen. He bypassed the hoop and curled out, kicking a pass to Brogdon along the arc. Brogdon swished it with 1 minute 7 seconds left to knot the score up.
“Unselfish,” Middleton said. “That’s the way we have to play. We have so many weapons on this team that no matter who’s open, or who drives, as long as we get the best shot, we’re going to be all right.
At the other end, Leonard attacked off a pick-and-roll with Serge Ibaka that had been trouble most of the night for the Bucks. Ibaka, regardless of who had the ball, had often popped for shots and made them count, scoring 22 points while making 4 of a career-high 11 three-pointers.
This time, Leonard went to the rim and was met by Antetokounmpo and Lopez, using the whole of their height to try to repel him. The result was a Leonard pass through the trees right to Brogdon who scooped up and with it started the break.
The ball swung around, making its way to Middleton at the top of the key. With Fred VanVleet closing out on him, Middleton made the extra pass to Brogdon in front of the Bucks’ bench for the shot that gave Brogdon 18 points on the night and put Milwaukee ahead for good with 41 seconds left.
“With the threes, again, Khris assisted me on both of those,” Brogdon said. “Just unselfish. I’m going to get the glory for the shots, but Khris is the one that sacrificed and made the extra passes to get it to me.
Rapid Recap: Milwaukee Bucks 104, Toronto Raptors 99 – Brew Hoop
Malcolm Brogdon hit a few HUGE three-pointers in the 4th to propel the Milwaukee Bucks to victory on Sunday night. The President finished with 18 points on 7-of-15 shooting and was very poised down the stretch. “HAIL TO THE CHIEF!”
Brook Lopez chipped in 19 points on 5-of-8 shooting from deep, and continued to provide a steady dose of offense for the Bucks. His ability to stretch the floor is ridiculous.
It wasn’t a fantastic game for point guard Eric Bledsoe, as he finished with 9 points but he did defend opposing point guard Kyle Lowry very well. When E-Bled only scores 9 points and the Bucks still win, it’s a good sign.
Khris Middleton continued to struggle for the Bucks, as he finished with 10 points on 3-of-9 shooting, but he did make two key assists in the final minute that led to big Bucks baskets. He’s mired in a bad shooting slump, but he will certainly break out of it. It’s only December.
For the Toronto Raptors, Kawhi Leonard finished with 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting and the Bucks did a great job of swarming of defensively. They made Kawhi really work for all of his buckets. Fred VanFleet scored 19 points of the Raps bench, and big man Pascal Siakam scored 17 points while blocking 3 shots. He’s a really good player. It was a game to forget for Toronto’s starting point guard, Kyle Lowry. He finished with 0 points. Has that ever happened before?
To say Lowry can still be impactful without scoring is Raptors conventional wisdom at this point, like saying an ice cream sundae can be good if it is just a scoop of vanilla and some sprinkles: It is an effective dessert, but you’d really like the hot fudge and peanuts to go with it. Lowry had seven more assists against the Bucks and contributed to a fairly strong defensive night for the Raptors. All of that plus the shooting is what makes him an all-star, but all of that without the shooting still leaves him as a very useful player. The Raptors scored seven more points than they allowed during Lowry’s 33 minutes on the floor. The bench lost the game — again. This is a 21-7 team with some problems, but at least they are going out on a brutal four-game Western Conference trip that has them playing four of that conference’s top seven teams over the span of six days.
To reach their ceiling, though, the Raptors need Lowry as an offensive threat. It would be disingenuous to say he has not been, as his play has been a big reason Serge Ibaka and Pascal Siakam have had the years they have had. Just the way he navigates the pick and roll, taking one extra dribble to further paralyze the help defender, has been responsible for creating a lot of open looks. Those who want Lowry to start pulling up inside the arc for mid-range jumpers should look elsewhere — that is not his game.
That should not absolve his play. He has clearly turned down some open shots in past games, and that makes hitting the more difficult ones, like those pull-up 3-pointers in transition, tougher. It works the opposite way, too.
“He’s got to shoot more. I don’t know what he shot tonight, but it didn’t feel like enough,” said Fred VanVleet, who has been playing through his own shooting slump. He went 5-for-7 from deep against the Bucks, accounting for a third of the Raptors’ makes. “Yeah, it’s not enough. He’s got to shoot 0-for-20: That would be my only advice to him. He’s one of the best shooters in the league — there (are) ups and downs to being a shooter, you’re not going to be hot all the time. And he’ll finish the year over 40 percent (from 3-point) and this will seem like so long ago.
“(Striking a balance) is probably even tougher for a guy like Kyle who is probably more of a scorer than anything. He’s taking a back seat. It’s a decision he’s made and it’s helped our team, it’s helped guys have great years. He’s probably sacrificing for the greater good of the team, which is honourable, but at the same time, we still need to keep reminding him that we need him to be selfish a little bit too out there. We’ve got guys out there trying to get buckets. He’s deferring a little bit, which is good, and so when you only get five shots and you miss all of them you’re never giving yourself a chance to really get going there. You’re getting end-of-shot-clock shots and heaves and whatever else.”
To an extent, it is clear that is harming the Raptors’ late-game execution, which seems notable given the Raptors lost by one in Brooklyn and by five against the Bucks. The Raptors scored on just one of their final four possessions, and that was when the Bucks all but gave VanVleet a layup to protect a three-point lead. Leonard was responsible for a few of the blown plays: There was a lot of over-dribbling on two possessions and then not nearly enough on the Raptors’ final one, when Leonard hoisted a deep one immediately upon receiving the inbound pass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxVHUXQfQIc
Lowry shot remains AWOL, Raps drop close one to Bucks | Toronto Sun
The biggest shots of the night belonged to Malcolm Brogdon, the Bucks former rookie of the year winner, now in his third season.
Brogdon erased a three-point Toronto lead with a minute and change remaining that Leonard established with his only three-pointer make of the night.
But Brogdon wasn’t done.
After a Lowry miss at the other end, his last of five on the night for the struggling point guard who did not register a single point in the game, Brogdon calmly set his feet and drilled another to put the Bucks up three.
Fred VanVleet got two of those back on a successful drive to the iron but the Bucks extended that one-point lead to three when Pascal Siakam lost Antetokounmpo on an in-bounds play allowing the Greek Freak an uncontested dunk.
Toronto had a dozen seconds left to force this one into overtime but a somewhat panicked three from well behind the top of the arc from Leonard hit front rim and was rebounded by the Bucks to basically put the game away.
Toronto falls to 21-7 and have now lost two in a row for just the second time this year having dropped one in Brooklyn on Friday.
The main concern afterwards was Lowry and how to get him out of his funk.
“I feel like he should be a little bit more aggressive,” Leonard said of his teammate. “Our offence kind of allows everybody to be themselves and take their shots. It’s a lot of freedom. With that said, he’s gonna have some big games coming up. He’s missing … shots, that’s why we play 82 games. Just a test for the playoffs. You just got to think down the road. If you have (tough) games like this, just buy in and come into the next game. He’s working hard in practice with his shot. It’s gonna fall for him. He’ll probably hit seven in a row or something.”
Lowry hasn’t had a scoreless game since going 0-for-7 on March 17, 2013 in a loss to the Miami Heat. When it was pointed out to Lowry that 25 of his past 28 shots have come from behind the arc, Lowry admitted that had been troubling him as well.
“Yeah, I’ve gotta,” he said of being more aggressive going to the basket. “I was thinking about that tonight, and I just didn’t get an opportunity, or just didn’t do it, rather. I’ve gotta be a little bit more inside the paint, inside the arc. I definitely do. That’s a good point.”
Game recap: Raptors can’t slow down Bucks three-point shooting, fall 104-99 – Raptors HQ
Shooting woes continued for the Raptors, shooting 38.5 per cent for the third quarter compared to the Bucks 48 per cent. The game also saw the Raptors fast break offense be slowed down as the Bucks led that category 24-16 for the game and were 8-0 in the third.
Nurse stuck with his bench for as long as he could in the fourth quarter before turning to a lineup of VanVleet-C.J. Miles-Leonard-Siakam-Jonas Valanciunas. That lineup showed some life with a couple solid possessions, cutting into the Bucks lead, but it was the go-to lineup that really got going.
Coming into the game with a +70.3-point differential, the lineup of Lowry-VanVleet-Green-Leonard-Ibaka finally strung together solid offensive and defensive minutes. Again, VanVleet looked his best when playing off the ball and Leonard was much calmer in the final quarter. The Raptors shot 5-for-11 from three in the final frame before Kawhi missed a long game-tying three with seven seconds left.
A Kawhi three at 2:09 gave the Raptors the lead, but back-to-back three-pointers by Brogdon in the span of 23 seconds allowed the Bucks to seal the game. VanVleet would hit a layup with 29 seconds left, but a failed attempt to get a steal or to foul the Bucks allowed Giannis to get an easy dunk to seal the game.
A Raptors two-game losing streak (and dropping three of the last four) is being highlighted by the offensive shooting woes of Lowry. In this contest, Lowry was held scoreless, missing all five field goals, though he looked good in other aspects of the offense.
The Raptors now look to a stretch of games on the road that feature some of the Western Conference’s best: Clippers, Warriors, Trail Blazers and Nuggets.
This was a game the Raptors needed after a tough loss to the Nets and the upcoming stretch of games, but now stand at 21-7 with a lot flaws still needing to be solved. They need a way to get Lowry and the bench (13 points versus the Bucks — not including VanVleet) feeling good again for this team to be in a better rhythm.
Lowry’s offensive slump continues in loss to Bucks – Sportsnet.ca
So, there’s a lot going on. Nurse has said that when he’s watched Lowry’s recent film he’s simply seen a guy who isn’t confidently taking his shot. The looks are there, he’s just not letting them fly like he normally would.
How does a coach address that? You could run some plays specifically designed for Lowry to shoot. The Raptors have around a half dozen of those, and were actually trying to prioritize them earlier this season — particularly late in the fourth quarter — in order to keep Lowry involved in the dawn of the Kawhi Leonard era.
But the Raptors got away from that a bit in recent games, which isn’t the source of Lowry’s struggles, but also isn’t helping. And it’s not always so easy. Lowry often gets blitzed by defences, which takes the ball out of his hands. Nurse has attempted to mitigate that by giving him different looks off a variety of down and double screens, trying to free him up for catch-and-shoot opportunities.
Still, that only takes you so far. The Raptors will still play out of their open set plenty throughout a game, and Lowry will have to find ways to be productive when they do. It’s not like he hasn’t before. Nurse thinks it’s simply about Lowry finding his natural rhythm again within the Raptors offence, and taking his opportunities when they present themselves.
“Don’t turn them down, don’t overpass it. You’re a primary scorer for us. Get aggressive in transition. Let’s see some of those deep bombs in transition,” Nurse said before Sunday’s game. “I don’t want him to say, ‘Geez, I haven’t shot well for three games so I’m going to limit my attempts.’ In fact, it should be the opposite. I’d like to see him pull about 10 of them tonight.”
Nurse certainly didn’t see that. And he didn’t see the deep bombs either. Lowry took only one shot in his first run of play, a pull-up three in transition that hit the rim. He moved the ball wall and set up Serge Ibaka with a couple makeable threes that didn’t fall. But he also turned the ball over three times, including once on a fast break that he normally converts into two points or a trip to the foul line.
Oh Buck Yeah: Milwaukee Has a Winning Formula – The Ringer
Toronto’s best chance of keeping up on Sunday was a counterstrike—fire 3s up to hang with Milwaukee’s top-scoring offense (119.4 points per game). The Raptors took 44 shots from from deep, around 10 more than they usually take and five more than Milwaukee did that night. And though they only made 15, they pushed the Bucks late, pulling within one with 28.9 seconds to play. But with 14.8 seconds to go, the Raptors overextended out on the perimeter on an out-of-bounds play; Antetokounmpo caught it at the arc, easily turned the corner, and coasted for a game-sealing dunk. That’s the other benefit to all of those 3s: When you step out farther to guard the perimeter players, it opens up the middle for a 6-foot-11 dunk machine.
Despite the Raptors’ loss, the game highlighted what makes the team so unique: They are so deep that coach Nick Nurse was able to work around Kyle Lowry’s shooting slump. (Lowry went 0-5 on Sunday, all of which were 3-pointers. The Raps guard is now 5-for-32 over his past five games.) Late in the game, Nurse went small, slotting Leonard at the 4 and Serge Ibaka at the 5 around three guards—Lowry, Fred VanVleet, and Danny Green. The lineup had been used for just 16 minutes total before Sunday’s game. But with Ibaka (22 points) playing well, Nurse stuck with it, to big returns: The five-man combination had a 65.6 net rating in 12 minutes against the Bucks. Even while leading the league with 21 wins, there are still so many different combinations on this roster for Nurse to explore.
Yet for all the variations the Raptors can employ, none could topple the Bucks’ tried-and-true approach. Both teams can keep up defensively, and both have a superstar who has bought into their respective offensive systems, but Budenholzer’s formula could be what gives the Bucks the slight edge in a head-to-head matchup. It worked the first time these teams met, too, with the Bucks putting up 124 points against a deeper team in a game without Giannis or Kawhi.
Bucks prove worth as elite rival to Raptors in Eastern Conference | SI.com
On Sunday, it was the sharpshooting of Malcolm Brogdon (who hit tying and go-ahead triples during the final minute-plus of the contest), the all-around effort of Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe’s presence around the perimeter and Brook Lopez’s down low—all in tandem with Antentokounmpo’s 19 points, 19 rebounds and six assists—that produced one of the most exciting matchups of the season thus far.
Of any of Toronto’s top Eastern Conference foes, Mike Budenholzer’s squad is the group that is arguably best-equipped to match the Raptors, particularly from a defensive standpoint. Toronto’s 99-point output Sunday marked their second-lowest single-game total of the year (and only the second time this season they’ve scored fewer than 100). The Bucks held the Raptors to 109 points (eighth-lowest total this season) in their previous meeting. Milwaukee’s length has caused fits for Toronto in each of the team’s two meetings.
Notably, Lowry has struggled in both contests. When the clubs first met in October (the Raptors played without Leonard), Lowry scored nine points on 3-for-14 shooting from the field (0-for-9 from 3-point range) in 34 minutes. On Sunday, Lowry was held scoreless, going 0-for-5 in 34 minutes. Fred VanVleet was effective, however, scoring 19 (including going 5-for-7 from three-point range).
In each matchup against the Raptors, Milwaukee has been balanced and not solely reliant on Antetokounmpo’s scoring prowess. Five Bucks finished in double figures Sunday; seven finished in double figures in the first meeting. No Bucks player scored 20 or more in either matchup. Unlike the first matchup, scorching three-point shooting didn’t afford Milwaukee a sizable advantage. The ability to get to the free-throw line did. (The Bucks went 17-for-20 from the line; the Raptors went 6-for-7.)
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks Earn Tough Road Win vs. Kawhi Leonard, Raptors | Bleacher Report
Although Leonard is the team’s leading scorer for the season, Kyle Lowry might be the team’s most important player, at least offensively. The four-time All-Star entered the day leading the league with 10.1 assists per game and often came through with big shots when needed.
Unfortunately, he has been mostly invisible since the start of December.
After missing one game with a sore back, Lowry had just 15 points combined over the next three games, shooting 4-of-23 from the field during this stretch. The Raptors lost two of those three games.
The point guard wasn’t any better against the Bucks, finishing with zero points on 0-of-5 shooting in a losing effort.
This showing was especially disappointing after Lowry admitted after last game that he was “too passive right now,” per Josh Lewenberg of TSN.
While he did add seven assists while playing strong defense, the Raptors need more points from their talented guard.
Toronto has one of the deepest teams in the NBA and can survive a few games without points from a key player. However, this has to turn around in a hurry, or the squad won’t have the league’s best record for too much longer.
n Episode 433 of Locked on Raptors, Sean Woodley and Vivek Jacob react to the Raptors’ 104-99 loss to the Bucks on Saturday night. They discuss the extension Kyle Lowry’s dip in performance, the defensive maneuvering done by both Milwaukee and Toronto, what George Hill will mean to the Bucks once he joins the lineup and Nick Nurse’s comments about solidifying the bench rotation from the game broadcast. Stop tweeting hateful and awful things at athletes — or just stop tweeting hateful and awful things entirely!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ICgHhPqBCk
Brogdon shines in crunch time, Antetokounmpo puts on a show in Bucks’ win – Video – TSN
Rod Black, Leo Rautins and Jack Armstrong discuss how Malcolm Brogdon was able to rise to the occasion in crunch time against the Raptors and take a closer look at another impressive performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Lowry didn’t score in a game for the first time since March, 2013. He did have seven assists.
It’s not the points production that’s most troubling — shooting comes and goes — it is Lowry’s seeming unwillingness to even try to take over a game that is troubling and mystifying.
“I’ve got to look at the film, see where it was at,” Lowry said of his night. “I don’t know. Just couldn’t find the open ones tonight.”
Of Lowry’s last 28 shots, 25 have been three-pointers
“I was thinking about that tonight, and I just didn’t get an opportunity, or just didn’t do it, rather,” he said of attacking the basket. “I’ve got to be a little bit more inside the paint, inside the arc. I definitely do.”
If he doesn’t, the Raptors are going to continue to struggle.
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