Games 3 and 4 of the series are Thursday and Saturday in Milwaukee, with Game 5 back in Toronto on Monday night. That should not happen with the size advantage the Raptors have.
Ibaka, who hadn't shot particularly well early in the night, pumped up his offence in the final quarter, and ended the night with 16 points, seven boards and six assists.
Then it got weird and the offence all but disappeared. With 4:07 to go in the third quarter, the floodgates opened, and by the 8:12 mark of the fourth, the Bucks had completed a 21-3 run to take a 14-point lead and complete control of proceedings.
According to oddsmakers at BetDSI, the Raptors are favored at home, as they are getting odds of -7.5 points against the Bucks.
The Bucks are simply a bad matchup for the Raptors as the Bucks' size does not allow the Raptors to get much usage out of their smaller lineups nor does the Bucks' athleticism allow the Raptors to capitalize on their own "Stretch-fours". The over/under total for the game is listed at 193 points.
"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. "The options became slim, we need to play him", Kidd said. "They did a good job".
"We got some great looks".
Lowry aggressively attacked the basket the entire first half, getting to the line seven times and converting all seven freebies. Toronto finished 5 for 23 from long range, with the starting five going 1 for 13.
Kyle Lowry needs to play better. I understand wanting to match Jonas Valanciunas up with Monroe or Thon Maker, but leaving DeMarre Carroll out there to defend Antetokounmpo was a horrific idea.
After that stellar second quarter by the Raptors, Milwaukee just muscled up and took the game over. The All Star point guard for the Toronto Raptors says his latest Game 1 failure doesn't just feel familiar, it's even worse than those that came before.
Wright only played eight minutes and took only one shot which he missed, but he was active and brought energy back to the Raptors when they needed it.
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To be honest, I think any of these options are equally likely at this point, and this is the series of which is mostly likely to end in an upset. "He's one of those guys that's a competitor and being with him over these years, I've seen him, been in the trenches with him before, and he's always bounced back".
The production from young players on this team is fun to watch, especially from Antetokounmpo.
"That's just who he is".
Milwaukee still had plenty of life, however, and when Antetokounmpo scored on an alley-oop layup from Matthew Dellavedova with 2:46 to play, the Bucks pulled to within a point.
As for the Raptors, why Dwane Casey was hesitant to roll the Serge Ibaka at the five lineup at will is beyond me. The 28-year-old was playign the 90th playoff game of his career and looked right at home putting up 19 points and 14 rebounds in the game.
Milwaukee's success in Game 1 was based on their ability to manufacture points despite a slow pace (87.5) and the Raptors' protection of the ball (only 10 turnovers committed by Toronto).
Also gone with this loss was the built-in excuse of those poor performances being at least partly attributed to those awful early starts.
INJURY UPDATE: Both teams are injury-free coming out of the opener. There was no 12:30 start to blame.
"He's shown the ability to block shots, that's for sure", Raps forward P.J. Tucker said.
All of the trends of the season point to Lowry turning around his dismal Game 1 performance in order to give the Raptors a fighting chance against the plucky Bucks. "We've gotta talk and figure out certain situations-what we want to do, who we want to send over for a double team, who we don't want to switch on". We have been there before. "It's not a good feeling".
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