Milwaukee Bucks Preview: Game 5 at Toronto Raptors
By Ti Windisch
Major Key For Toronto: Wall Off the Paint
The Toronto Raptors went small for Game 4, starting Norman Powell in place of Jonas Valanciunas and using him to defend Khris Middleton. Even though the Raptors went small, Toronto’s strategy seemed to include dropping back and not allowing Giannis to get to the painted area with ease.
That strategy worked. Giannis was six for 19 from the field in Game 4, and the Bucks failed to capitalize on any of the space Toronto gave up. Tony Snell hit five threes, which was the entirety of the threes the Bucks hit as a team on Saturday. The team missed 16 of their 21 attempts from long range.
The Bucks best and only real strategy to combat Toronto walling off the paint is hitting those threes. Nothing else is going to open up paths to the rim for Giannis and company, who scored four less points in the paint than Toronto and just 76 points total in Game 4.
The failure of the Bucks to score was a shame, because it wasted a nice defensive performance by Milwaukee. Nobody outside of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan on the Raptors scored more than 12 points, and each bench player aside from Valanciunas was held scoreless.