Are You Not Entertained? Five Things to Watch For In Bucks-Raptors

Led by one of the best backcourts in the NBA, Toronto Raptors won 50 games in the 2016-17 season – only the second time in franchise history. Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and John Henson are the only remaining players from the 2014-15 team.

Toronto had a chance to set the tone, but instead it played on its heels and outside of a few stretches, the Raptors didn’t deserve a more favourable fate. The Raptors went 27 for 75 overall.

“I haven’t thought anything about that”, Antetokounmpo said. Lowry needs to take advantage of this matchup. However, the key to the season will be keeping that up in the playoffs when the Raptors need him and Kyle Lowry the most. Lowry has shot under 33% in back-to-back first-round series, and he seems well on his way to repeating that type of performance against Milwaukee. Maker chipped in three blocks and a steal on the defensive end of the floor, and one point he went step for step with Kyle Lowry on an isolation drive.

The Bucks have one of the youngest cores in the league, but they did add some playoff experience to their roster by adding Tony Snell (Bulls), Matthew Dellavedova (Cavaliers) and Mirza Teletovic (Nets) in the offseason.

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Toronto.

The Bucks didn’t even bother to put a body on Jonas Valanciunas, the unwitting victim of easy driving lanes Milwaukee would yield. A pretty solid accomplishment considering they lost one of their best players, forward Jabari Parker, to a season-ending torn ACL on February 8.

“Yesterday I was standing by my office and P.J. and Serge were arguing with Rex (Raptors assistant coach Kalamian) about something and coach (Dwane) Casey comes up and says ‘Those guys are talking about defence.’ That tells you what they’re about”.

As the opening half would play out, Valanciunas became more active, his teammates looking for him with Valanciunas carving space in the post, which is his strength.

Chatter about the Cavs will no doubt intensify over the next week, and the Raps will face the challenge of tuning out that noise to focus on Milwaukee and the present.

And as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said at the All-Star break, the league expects the worldwide players to keep coming.

His backcourt partner, DeMar DeRozan, has been a beast, too, averaging 22.3 points against the Bucks this season. Milwaukee finished their final 12 games with a 7-5 record, some of those included in their red hot March in which they went an NBA-best 14-4. They’re down 0-1 because of what happened on the floor Saturday night, when they scored a paltry 31 points on 45 possessions in the second half. Andre Iguodala, who is averaging career highs in field goal and three-point percentage, also makes his case being the catalyst to the west leading Warriors bench this season. The Bucks find scoring baskets a lot more hard than the Raptors, but Khris Middleton, Greg Monroe and likely rookie of the year Malcolm Brogdon are the ones who’ll have to help out Antetokounmpo carve out his playoff legacy with the Bucks. Despite losing the team leader, the season turnaround started when the Raptors faced the Boston Celtics in the first game back from the break. Throw in Tucker and Patterson coming off the bench and the Raptors have one of the strongest second units in all the National Basketball Association. At 6-feet, 11-inches tall, he is listed as a shooting guard or small forward. With a better starting lineup and more depth, the Raptors should win this series fairly easily. DeMarre Carroll is likely going to assume that role, but it may take more than Carroll to slow down the Greek Freak. Greg Monroe is the third double-digit scorer and Malcolm Brogdon is dishing 4.2 assists.