'Greek Freak,' Bucks - and Jazz, Bulls - look for 2-0 leads

Lowry, who averaged 22.4 points, 7.0 assists and 4.8 rebounds in his best regular season yet, finished with just four points on 2-for-11 shooting, including 0-for-6 from deep.

"I think in the playoffs, my game is suited to that", he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Toronto scored just 13 points in the final frame and 32 points total in the second half.

"I've been in the trenches with him before and he's always bounced back", Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.

Behind a deluge of 3's (14-29, 48.3 percent) the Toronto Raptors got a much-needed victory on Tuesday night.

DeMar DeRozan scored 23 points, while Serge Ibaka, playing on a sprained left ankle, added 16 points and seven rebounds.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had 24 points and 15 rebounds for the Bucks. Khris Middleton scored 20 points and Greg Monroe had 18 for Milwaukee. Tony Snell, a former Chicago Bull, drained four triples to finish with 14.

The Toronto Raptors have been here before, down 1-0 in a first-round playoff series. Any team that loses their 1st or 2nd most important player in the opening minutes of an National Basketball Association series is going to have a rough go of it, those are simply the breaks of the National Basketball Association playoffs. I just knew that he wasn't going to be satisfied the way that he played the first game.

A day after DeRozan compared the Raptors' notoriously slow starts to an old Buick Regal, Toronto played with greater intensity from the tipoff, sprinting out to an early five-point lead.

In game two, Kidd played Hawes and Teletovic again and it was - surprise - a huge failure.

"He's probably going to shoot a little bit better than he did last game and he's probably going to make a lot of the shots that he missed", Kidd said. And that gives hope that for the remainder of the series, the Raps can rely on their point guard to help guide them through to the next round.

Ibaka says it would have been "tough" to play if Game 2 was Monday.

At this point in the playoffs, constructing an NBA DFS lineup is all about analyzing Game 1 and deciding if those performances represent a trend. They ended the quarter on a six-point run, going into the fourth down one.

KEEP AN EYE ON Guard Malcolm Brogdon will face Raptors guard Kyle Lowry, who struggled with his shooting in Game 1. Antetokounmpo had eight points and 10 rebounds.

So in the end the Toronto Raptors tried to be themselves, but better.

Yet, if you're a full-fledged, card-carrying member of Milwaukee Bucks Nation, you have to be ecstatic right now about your favorite team.

Welcome back my Toronto Raptors vs Milwaukee Bucks fans. Sure, there was talk about looking forward to getting back on their home court and Brogdon made some comment about the team having a chip on their shoulder, but mostly the Bucks seemed to reflect the tone and tenor of Kidd, whose been down this playoff road a couple of times both in uniform and civvies.

Head to head, the Raptors are 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings in Milwaukee, the favorite is 6-2 ATS in the last eight meetings and the under is 9-3 in the last 12 meetings. The Bucks' length is making it really hard to get clean passing angles and Wright is the second-best passer on the team.

Ibaka made a jumper to put Toronto up three but Antetokounmpo answered with a 3-pointer, tying it at 100-all with 2:03 left.

Three different guys started at the center, before a fourth guy was chosen for the job and the Bucks went back and forth between Brogdon and Dellavedova at the point.

His coach and by extension his teammates according to Lowry are telling him he has to be more aggressive and shoot more than he did in Game 1. Lowry was playing the best ball of his career and DeRozan's new, more versatile offensive game was lovely to watch. The Clippers do have the resident talent, so this one is by no means over, though, their problematic history is going to have the criticism dial cranked up to 10 if they lose this game.