The Raptors will try to continue to ride the hot hand of Norman Powell when they visit the Milwaukee Bucks for a potential series-clinching Game 6 on Thursday.
The crowd on the road was rowdy.
Mike Conley led the Grizzlies with 26 points, and Marc Gasol chipped in with 18 points and six assists.
If the Bucks had managed to upset Toronto, then it would start a stream of stories about how Antetokounmpo represents the future of the league and they might be the eventual heir to the Cavs' throne in the East. Milwaukee didn't get it done, but both of those things could still be true.
DeMar DeRozan delivered 32 points as the Toronto Raptors rebounded after blowing a 25-point second half lead to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks, 92-89, to reach the second round of the National Basketball Association playoffs.
After the brief scare from the Bucks, the Raptors are now off to round two where they will face the Cleveland Cavaliers.
After Game 5, the Bucks had lost badly enough that Bucks coach Jason Kidd went as far as saying, "You got to know what it feels like to get your ass kicked, right?" We made the extra pass to find the open man. Defensively we talked, we were physical without fouling and got stops and rebounds and that led to transition.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Memphis was a good test and now his team is better prepared to go on a long postseason run.
American couple climbs Mount Everest to exchange wedding vows
The bride wearing a strapless gown had to especially focus on keeping herself warm due to the frigid weather. Kerry, the leader of a Greek mountaineering team, said: "Now we have electricity at the base camp".
The Raptors snapped a five-game losing streak in Game 6s, earning a couple extra days off to rest for the Cavaliers. After holding a commanding 72-48 lead with 3:48 left in third quarter, the Raptors fell apart. Toronto was outscored 27-6, shot 15.4 percent from the field and 0-of-5 from three, and had more turnovers (seven) than made field goals (two).
"Yeah, we got away from (the ball movement) during that stretch where they were going on their run", Patrick Patterson said. Down 90-87 with 14 seconds left, Milwaukee took longer than it probably wanted to move its offense, and Antetokounmpo wound up guarded by Lowry, who's almost a full foot shorter than him, beyond the arc with just a few seconds left. He had 34 points. Maybe the lesson of this Milwaukee series was that the Raptors have more than one way to beat teams, and are ready for this. "We don't need to overanalyze it. We got to the stripe and we just couldn't capitalize on that". The Bucks are favored by 1.5 points, via OddsShark, and the over/under is 195. A Bucks win would force a Game 7 in Toronto Saturday.
Toronto took a 51-38 into halftime with DeRozan scoring 16 points.
In their last meeting, on April 24th, the Raptors crushed the Bucks 118-93.
Serge Ibaka, who was acquired from Orlando at February's trade deadline for precisely these big-game moments, struggled offensively in Milwaukee.
The Milwaukee Bucks finished sixth in the Eastern Conference with a 42-40 record.
The fan base in Milwaukee had its attention very much divided Thursday night, between the Bucks and what their beloved Green Bay Packers would do in the ongoing NFL Draft. Toronto won three consecutive playoff games for the first time and advanced past the first round for the third time in franchise history.
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