Gameday: Bucks @ Raptors, Jan 4

The Toronto Raptors will look to win their first game against the Milwaukee Bucks tonight.

The return of Fred VanVleet and Precious Achuiwa was spoiled by the Pacers on Monday night. It was ultimately a close game but the Pacers managed to take the game at the end and won. It was a tough loss but we move on.

Tonight we get to witness two all-stars go head-to-head against each other. Pascal Siakam vs Giannis Antetokounmpo is a duel I always look forward to. This will also be the first time Scottie Barnes and Giannis face each other.

Raptors: Gary Trent Jr is heating up as he scored 30+ points for the second game in a row and that was his fourth game with 20+ points. He led the Raptors with 32 points.

Trent Jr finished the night with 5 threes on 10 attempts (50%). That’s the hooper we all know and love.

This play by Scottie and Trent Jr is pure genius. They caught Bennedict Mathurin and T. J. McConnell slacking and took advantage of that with a beautiful pass by Barnes and a nice finish by Trent Jr.

Siakam and Scottie also had great games as they both had well-rounded games. Siakam finished the night with 26 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds while Scottie finished the night with 23 points 8 assists, and 8 rebounds.

This was Siakam’s 8th game in a row with 25 or more points. He has to be a lock for an NBA all-star at this point.

Scottie had a great bounce-back game and it was an encouraging sign. The hope is that he will be able to keep this up for many games to come.

O.G. Anunoby once again had a game with 15+ points, which makes it the 6th game in a row. He shot poorly from three but overall had a good game with 8 rebounds, a steal, and two blocks.

Last but not least, VanVleet’s performance has been very poor as of late. I hate to say it, but he is one of the main reasons why the Pacers were able to win against the Raptors. He missed threes in the clutch and he let players like Haliburton and Hield easily blow by him when he was defending which led to buckets for Indiana.

He is a huge part of the Raptors organization and team and without him, the Raptors will have a tough time winning games. He needs to find his game again and take over games in the clutch like how he did last season. Hopefully, he can find his touch tonight against the Bucks.

Bucks: The Bucks will be playing on a back-to-back after they beat the Washington Wizards last night. Giannis had a career-high 55 points last night and added 10 rebounds and 7 assists.

As of now, it looks like Giannis will be playing tonight. If you want to beat the Bucks, you have to contain Giannis.

Other players to look out for include Jrue Holiday who only played 19 minutes last night, Brook Lopez who is in running for DPOY, and Bobby Portis who’s scored 15+ points for 4 games in a row.

Pat Connaughton, Serge Ibaka, Grayson Allen, Joe Ingles, MarJon Beauchamp are also players who can do damage to this team.