Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways in 129-110 loss to Toronto Raptors

Third quarter throttling

The first half of Friday night’s game was a tense back and forth affair, reminiscent of the playoff series the Raptors and the Bucks played last year as well as the matchup both teams held earlier in the week.

But the third quarter turned that rhythm out of whack as the Raptors wiped the floor with the Bucks, outscoring them 43-19 in the period, which was a season-high for any Bucks opponent in a single quarter as stated by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Matt Velazquez during the game.

While DeMar DeRozan was inflicting his damage from inside or around the perimeter, it was Raptors big man Jonas Valanciunas who gutted the Bucks from down low during the period, a stark turn after a quiet and foul-filled first half.

Whether it was creating his own offense or off of second chance points, the 25-year-old Lithuanian ate up everything that bounced his way as he scored all 20 of his points during the period as well as corralled in nine of his 13 rebounds on the night (the third quarter rebounding margin was another big problem for the Bucks as Velazquez pointed out during the game after the fact).

Almost single handedly being the difference in the disparity in the quarter between both teams, there was just nothing the Bucks could do to slow down Valanciunas and by the time they were heading into the fourth, there was nothing else to do but ride out the game’s final 12 minutes.