Milwaukee Bucks: 3 takeaways from 108-100 Game 1 win over Toronto Raptors

Looking to regroup

As much as all Bucks fans and the team themselves are reveling in a hard fought, comeback victory to kick off the series, the visitors locker room was surely bitter about how things had fallen apart in their Game 1 loss.

The Raptors couldn’t have asked for more from their 1-2 punch of Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry, given that they combined for 61 of their 100 total points. Lowry’s shotmaking, in particular, from three was absolutely incredible and there was nothing you could do from the other side of the fence but tip your hat to the veteran point guard as he finished with 30 points and went 7-of-9 from downtown.

But while the Raptors’ hot shooting start and overall willingness gave way to their strong first quarter, that all would disappear as the game wore on. After going 6-of-13 from three in the first quarter, they ended up going 9-of-29 in the three remaining periods and finished the night at 35.7 percent from that range.

What was more worrisome was that aside from mostly capitalizing on their opportunities to go to the free throw line, they connected on just 11 of their 25 attempts in the restricted area, which made for a mark of 44 percent, per NBA.com/stats. That was coupled with just 26 points in the paint as well and that’s tied for the fewest amount of points they’ve scored from that area in the regular season and playoffs combined.

Moving forward, the big question facing the Raptors is if they’re able to squeeze out anything worthwhile from their supporting cast, from the likes of Marc Gasol on down. I mean, this tweet from Kirk Goldsberry of ESPN pretty much says it all in that regard.

Additionally, all of the Raptors starters logged more than 35 minutes of run, with Leonard, Lowry and Pascal Siakam getting more than 40 minutes each and leaving many to wonder about the minutes distribution and overall workload for the team’s top tier of players.

After plenty of speculation about whether they’d have a hangover from how they got here in the first place, the reality turned out to be even more troublesome for the Raptors after coming so close to putting the Bucks on their heels in the opening tilt of the series. How they respond in Game 2 is obviously everyone’s big question at this point.

The Bucks will look to take a 2-0 lead in the series when they take on the Raptors in Game 2 Friday night at Fiserv Forum. Once again, it’s slated to tip off a 7.30 p.m. central time.