Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from Game 1 Win Over the Toronto Raptors

Rotations

Much has been made of Jason Kidd’s seemingly random and ineffective rotations all season long. A big question coming into this game, critics of Kidd’s rotation decisions seemed to be proved right during the first half, as Kidd played 11 players and three different centers.

After playing Michael Beasley, Mirza Teletovic, and Spencer Hawes in the first half, none of these players saw playing time in the second until the game was well in hand and Beas came in during garbage time. None of these players were very effective at stopping the Raptors from scoring, as the Bucks were outscored by 13 in the second quarter, where they found most of their minutes.

Interestingly, the Bucks didn’t play any backup forwards in the second half. Even when Giannis got into foul trouble in the third, Kidd trusted Khris, Brogdon, and Snell to take care of business defensively, and they managed to outscore the Raptors by seven even with Giannis on the bench.

Matthew Dellavedova saw 32 minutes, including many of them alongside Brogdon, but managed to perform decently. The Bucks may have been better off playing Snell (24 minutes) when Brogdon was on the floor handling point guard responsibilities. Snell was 3/7 from deep, and his length on defense made life harder for the Raptors guards.

Kudos to Jason Kidd for doing a good job in the second half. While I might have been happier with more Tony Snell, the results were there, and I’ll take a Bucks win in any way I can get one.