Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways From Loss To Toronto Raptors
The Milwaukee Bucks have added to their ongoing losing streak with their loss to the Toronto Raptors Monday night. With that, we take a look at what stood out the most for the Bucks in the loss.
Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
The losing streak for the Milwaukee Bucks has now risen to three games with their 122-100 loss to the Toronto Raptors Monday night.
The loss, which puts the Bucks back under .500 again, showcased the Bucks being overmatched from the jump and ended up being a rare 20-point-plus loss at this point in the season.
From the opening tip, the Raptors came out firing on the offensive end and the Bucks had little to counter them defensively. Headlined by DeMar DeRozan’s 30-point night (on just 11 shots, by the way), the Raptors were hitting shots from all areas of the floor and getting solid contributions from both their starting group as well as their prominent bench players.
The Raptors unrelenting attack forced head coach Jason Kidd to roll out anyone that could help stop the bleeding in hopes to make the game at least competitive.
Eventually, the Bucks crawled their way back into the game, thanks to a third quarter where they outscored the Raptors 33-23 and drew their deficit as small as eight points late into the period. That wouldn’t last for long though as the Raptors put their foot on the gas pedal to open the fourth quarter and ultimately kept their lead well out of reach for the Bucks to make things remotely interesting down the stretch.
With that to set the stage, it’s time to dig a little deeper at who and what stood for the Bucks in last night’s loss.
Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
A Quiet, But Impressive Night For Giannis
Similar to his performance against the Wizards a couple of nights ago, it was a tale of two halves for Giannis Antetokounmpo last night.
As the Bucks were looking for any answers once the Raptors were first starting to break away, Giannis was largely nowhere to be found for the first half, only offering 6 points, 3 boards and 4 assists. That all changed coming out of halftime with the Bucks finally starting to make it a game and Giannis being the driving force behind it.
Playing all of the third quarter, Giannis scored 15 points and more importantly, did his damage no matter the situation. He initiated scores by causing disruptions defensively, made it to the free-throw line (and not causing any free-throw violations) and even flexed his muscles by stretching the floor a bit, hitting shots from the mid-range area (not three-point makes to add to that, unfortunately).
In total, finishing the night with 30 points (his fourth 30-point game of the year, for those wondering) eight rebounds, five assists, three steals and ZERO (!) turnovers only adds to the growing list of exceptional performances from Giannis this year.
Sure, it didn’t do much to make a dent in the end, but in the grand scheme of things, it was nice to see Giannis noticeably rebound as the game went on after getting off on the wrong foot.
Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Is It Too Late Now To Say Jabari?
Going from the team’s leading performer for the night, not far behind in Giannis’ foot steps was Jabari Parker.
While the Bucks were without much help to just keep them afloat in the first half, Jabari was arguably the lone exception by providing some much needed offense. Perhaps that was helped in large part by making sure to get him involved from the get go, but it worked out nonetheless for the 21-year old, who scored 17 points on nine shots in nearly his first 17 minutes.
Even as Giannis went into full on attack mode in the second half, Jabari remained steady playing as a complementary option in the Bucks comeback attempt. He hit a couple of big three-point makes and came away with a rip-roaring slam, although it was well after the game was out of reach.
All in all, Jabari coming away with one of his most efficient nights of the season on a high volume of shots as well was incredibly encouraging to see. With that said, there wasn’t much more to his play as he merely added three rebounds, two assists and a steal in all of his 35 minutes.
But I guess beggars can’t be choosers and I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that this is something we’d all like to get used to as the year goes on, but just in winning results.
Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
An Out Of Character Night For The Bench
Whether it’s been in victory or defeat, the Bucks have had a helping hand with their bench production this season.
As the ninth-best bench in terms of scoring (per NBA.com/stats), the Bucks have had a whole cast of characters to rely on at multiple points of games to give the shot in the arm they’ve needed. Last night, however, was one of the rare instances so far where that wasn’t the case.
Solid contributors like Michael Beasley, Malcolm Brogdon and Mirza Teletovic were all non-factors for the Bucks last night and didn’t do much fill in the gaps around Giannis and Jabari. In his nine minutes, Jason Terry added to his rough shooting season by hitting just one shot from the field and missing all three of his three-point attempts.
The lone positive bench contributor by far last night was Greg Monroe, who scored 11 points on a perfect 5-for-5 from the field in his 16 minutes of action.
With the bench failing to fire, especially as the Raptors were taking care of the Bucks with ease, it was definitely interesting to see a non-garbage time appearance from Thon Maker (remember, it’s pronounced may-cure).
It’s very hard to see something similar moving forward since it was mostly made with Kidd looking for anyone to give the team any signs of life and it ultimately didn’t do much to may-cure what was ailing the Bucks at the moment (puts on sunglasses a la David Caruso while blaring The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”).
Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Three-Point Defense Concerns
While we can say it was an off night for the bench, a growing concern that’s getting hard to ignore is the Bucks’ three-point defense.
An extension of how they beat the Bucks the first time around, the Raptors obliterated the Bucks from beyond the arc, hitting 14-of-25 from deep compared to the 4-of-25 the Bucks meagerly offered for the night.
Of course, the Raptors balanced attack from all areas of the floor demands plenty of attention and discipline, but the ease with with which they got off their three-point looks was the most troubling. To make matters worse, it didn’t matter who it was as well as proven three-point threats like Kyle Lowry, Terrence Ross and DeMarre Carroll shot away without many contests.
The rising three-point efficiency opposing teams have had against the Bucks recently have certainly played a big part in the team’s ongoing losing streak. Despite the team being a top-three team in terms of defended three-point field goal percentage, the Bucks lead the league in the frequency of attempts opposing teams launch from downtown for the season.
As we’re seeing right now, that’s catching up with the Bucks, whether it’s in a close game or in a loss like this one. From here, we can only hope that it will be a point of emphasis, especially with stiffer competition on the way.
The Bucks will look to break their current slump when they face the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
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