Quickly, the Raptors took the lead in the series in Game 1. Toronto also started poorly from the 3-point line, missing its first six shots from behind the arc. Milwaukee will aim to even out their first round series tomorrow in Game 4 as they host the Raptors for a second time. “It’s a tough way to live, but I love our team’s resilience and personality”. But as head coach Dwane Casey admitted, they play their best basketball in the face of adversity. “He is going to try and do things and put us in a better position to be successful so for us all we can do is roll with what they tell us to do”.
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The Bucks didn’t appear to have any answers or counterpunches of their own. “It was feeling you can’t get over”, DeRozan, speaking after practice Sunday, said of his miserable Game 3 memories. Good coaches adapt, and like the series against the Pacers past year, this is one where Valanciunas can really play to his strengths. Each team made just five three-pointers for a paltry 10 of 43 combined. Head coach Jason Kidd’s squad was relentless on the offensive glass to create a flurry of second-chance opportunities down the stretch, but the Bucks just never found their shooting stroke to make a serious charge.
“We just got to use it as motivation, man”, DeRozan said.
“We seemed to be walking the ball up. We didn’t come out with the sense of urgency that we needed”. We went from 24 assists to whatever we had tonight (11).
The 104-77 blowout victory saw an incredible elbow block by Giannis, a poster by Thon Maker, Khris Middleton score 11 in the first quarter, and so much more from the players.
Giannis Antetokounmpo couldn’t find the range, shooting 6-19 for 14 points and coughing up 7 turnovers.
Centre Maker again started for the Bucks and he scored seven points to go with four rebounds and two assists while Dellavedova had two points, two rebounds and three assists off the bench.
Tony Snell led Milwaukee with 19 points, including five three-pointers, both playoff career highs. But after a forgettable Game 3, DeRozan said the team stayed patient and remained confident. He looked nearly unstoppable, torching every defender Milwaukee tried on him.
Milwaukee turned the ball over 20 times with Antetokounmpo accounting for seven.
Milwaukee switches one condor-wingspanned player for another on defense, and a Raptors offense predicated on DeRozan and Lowry beating their man off the dribble couldn’t get around them. “He could see that guys weren’t making shots, so he thought he could do it”.
“They were on us”, Casey said of the Bucks boosters. “That’s what we did in Game 2 and that’s what we’ve got to get back to”. “He actually moves the ball and makes himself available when guys are trapped”.
During the regular season DeRozan topped the team in scoring with 27.3 points while also adding 5.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. Afterward, he agreed with his coach’s assessment of Milwaukee’s performance.
“I still think we can win the series”, Lowry said. He managed 8 of his 17 shots. “This is awesome, just look at it, it’s like a college atmosphere down here”, said Tim McCann, Bucks fan.
The Bucks shot a high 52.7 percent from the field (39-of-74) and bombarded the Raptors with 12 triples. “We’ve got to be hungry”.
Still, either way you feel about it, the Raptors and Bucks have a brand new series.
The Toronto Raptors have been inconsistent through three games of their first-round playoff series against the Milwaukee Bucks.
“It was a physical game – not more physical than (the Raptors) have been”, Brogdon said.
“It’s on us to be ready for that as well, even more so”. Sort of like we played (Saturday).
The pace of this game favoured Toronto.
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Looking at the betting trends, the Bucks are 6-1 ATS in their last seven games following a lost of more than 10 points, 7-3 ATS in their last 10 road games and 5-2 ATS in their last seven Conference Quarterfinals games.
