In their second meeting of the week, the Milwaukee Bucks were trounced by the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, losing 129-110.
What was shaping up to be another battle similar to their playoff series last year ended up to be anything but as the Milwaukee Bucks were handled by the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, losing 129-110.
The Bucks came out of the gate hot, perhaps enough to heat the surrounding area around the BMO Harris Bradley Center, as they built a 12-5 lead in the night’s opening few minutes. But the Raptors answered back following a much needed timeout by going on a 14-0 run, prompting Bucks head coach Jason Kidd to call a timeout of his own.
With both teams having to regroup after each went on their respective runs, the rest of the first quarter was spent with the Bucks trying to close the gap between them and the Raptors to no avail as they trailed 33-24 after the first 12 minutes.
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At the start of the second quarter, though, the Bucks chipped away at the Raptors’ lead by going on a 15-5 run and regaining the lead momentarily.
That was enough for Raptors head coach Dwane Casey to put back in his starting unit and the rest of the quarter was tightly contested between both teams, even getting a little chippy at times by the end of it.
Leading by 2 at the start of the second half, the Raptors completely broke open the game in the third quarter, thanks to DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas combining for 34 of the team’s 43 total points in the frame. As the Raptors were running wild, the Bucks couldn’t conjure up any answers of their own throughout the period and faced a 26-point deficit going into the fourth quarter.
With the game all but finished, the Bucks spent the fourth quarter with both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton earning unneeded minutes with the game out of hand before rolling out a mix and match of their end of bench players and a couple of their rotation players to put on the night’s finishing touches.
So without further ado, let’s take a deeper dive and look at what stood out in the Bucks’ loss to the Toronto Raptors Friday night.