Everything Round 1: Toronto Raptors vs Milwaukee Bucks

[Bendit]

Did not realize Conley was as good as showed this series. He & Kawhi both are ice water....and no showboating....2 way play too.

[Jclaw]

Round #1, Game #5: Milwaukee Bucks 93 - Toronto Raptors 118 (TOR 3-2)

THANK YOU @npowell2404

— Jared Sullinger (@Jared_Sully0) April 22, 2017

So..... @Jared_Sully0....what's the secret for the next game? I'm all ears. Good to see Coach Casey is up to date on Sully's tweets. That was more like it. Nice win. Now we know what happens when the Rockets play the Warriors...except it's the exact opposite. 10 made 3's...by both teams combined! Whatever. Now I just have to work my head around (**checks to see that all Matt Moore fans are gone**) the concept of "Khris Middleton, like DeMar DeRozan, but good. But maybe not as good. Wait, what's does 'sample size' mean?"

On to the next thread. Can't wait to come up with some razor sharp witty ideas to represent the next team of players we face. What's that you say? Hmmm...never had to do the same team back to back. Consider this the "b side". Speaking of which...

So let's welcome the team from.....
.......no, no pictures of pissy beer or gross blue cheese. I'm afraid, for tonight, we have to pour one out for Shortcake...

But, if you need your fix of why we're great and Milwaukee not so much, you can check out these:

http://time.com/3023503/unhappiest-cities/
https://onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/100badthings.html

So let's meet the Bucks..again

(PG)

(SG)

(SF)

(Who knew? I guess they really like him)

(PF)

(C)

And, for your Toronto Raptors.....well, our man Blake summed it up best.

Yeah, so, tonight's starters have literally never played a minute together before. Hope practice was good yesterday.

— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) April 22, 2017

No late braking news from Sully so I'll hedge and go with..

K. Lowry (PG)
D. Derozan (SG)
And then..

Keys to the game? Whatever Sullinger tweets, and....

Go Raps!

[psrs1]

Great job by Casey in this one. Very few complaints. I do think he usual starters would be fine if they followed the formula of the last game they played against the Bucks in the regular season (post up JV, play Thon off the court). But, if they aren't doing that, they had to fix the offence some other way and find a way to break those traps. Starting Powell was perfect - loved the move as soon as I heard it.

The issue was more the offence than the defence - and the offence still wasn't great in this one, but was much, much better. The biggest issue in the first few games was being completely unable to break the Bucks' traps. The pass out of the double would inevitably go to JV or Carroll and the offence would have to reset. Eventually the team stopped bothering with picks at all and just settled for contested jumpers. Recipe for disaster. Insert Powell as the guy getting the release valve pass? Instant rim attack, possibly even utilizing another screen, this time against a moving defence, and suddenly those traps aren't so scary anymore. And as such, you saw the Bucks kind of give up on them - players can tell when something isn't working, so even when the game plan kept calling for traps, they were half hearted.

So, we saw DD at his best for the first time this series. Great game from him. If the team has unlocked this Bucks defence, this should continue, and we've got a real chance to take the next two. We'll see what Kidd has in terms of a further adjustment.

Lowry was solid - only decent shooting, but back to his usual dominance of every play on both ends. There were some defensive hiccups, especially early, but he found his footing and killed it on both ends in the second half, powering the Raps to the win after that back and forth deadlock of the first half.

Ibaka was very good, especially in small lineups. Against Monroe he got ravaged on the boards - that's one change I would have made, JV in a little earlier in the 4th, but I didn't expect JV to finish up the game, so not much difference either way.

Carroll... Well, let's not talk about Carroll. If Pat can play (I presume he was hurt as he disappeared later in the game), there's no reason for Carroll to play. He's proving again and again that he's not the guy to defend Giannis.

Powell was great. Attacked well, hit his open threes, brought energy defensively even if he missed a few rotations and didn't communicate as well as you'd hope. Stick with this look until it doesn't work.

JV was really good off the bench. He struggled early to get his head in the game (especially defensively), and suffered from some interesting calls (and, again, was just slow starting on both ends). But in the second half, he really picked it up, and was a major difference maker as a target on the roll and quick, deep posts, and kept Monroe mostly contained on the glass (not fully, of course, as the Raps help too much for any one guy to keep a rebounder down). Paid off down the stretch as he closed out this one with Ibaka in foul trouble (and in trouble on the boards). Great response to being pulled as a starter - could have hung his head, instead fought his way into closing minutes.

Tucker fantastic again. Clearly should be starting to take a bigger chunk of Giannis' minutes, and to help spread his minutes around. Just, what do you say about this guy?

CoJo... still not looking great. Wright looked good though! This game was a microcosm in the argument to move CoJo and Carroll this summer. Better options available.

I'm so glad they didn't lose this one. I really like this core, and I'd like to see what they can do if kept together for a few years. Have to win this series for that to be a possibility.

Still improvements to make - too many possessions that came down to the final seconds because they chased a specific matchup or pass for way too long against the Bucks' aggressive help. Swing the ball, attack the seams. Decisive offence. The defence looked good, no complaints there.

DanH glad you are happy with coaching decisions in this game. So am I . When he deserves criticism he'll get plenty, BUT when he dies a solid jib he should get credit. Despite all his flaws he is the winning coach in Raptors history.

[Ebonhawke]

Portland's Game 3 shirts are even uglier than the Raptors' imho

[Ebonhawke]

I'll see if I can find an image later, but the shirts read simple 'ripcity' in Comic Sans diagonally across the chest - some shirts are white on red, others are red on white.

[TrueTorontoFan]

Going to this game... gunna be sitting in the lower bowl... MAN IM EXCITED

[007]

Please Please PLEASE start 2Pat over Carroll

[DanH]

Heck yes. Keep it rolling, Jclaw. Finally saw the Raps figure the Bucks out, hopefully. If that holds, you've got a chance to roll us right into the next round.

[DanH]

Please Please PLEASE start 2Pat over Carroll

Is Pat hurt though? He played 7 minutes today.

Frankly, I'd start Tucker instead of Pat, keep the Pat on Giannis look for a change of pace.

[S.R.]

DanH glad you are happy with coaching decisions in this game. So am I . When he deserves criticism he'll get plenty, BUT when he dies a solid jib he should get credit. Despite all his flaws he is the winning coach in Raptors history.

They did a hell of a lot more than just swap out a starter - the way they used Ibaka at the 5 as a roaming/zone defender to protect the paint + keyed in on Giannis in general was fantastic. Nothing easy for Giannis and it had 100% to do with Toronto's defensive strategy + execution.

[Ball]

Oh shit, with Fat Tony in their starting lineup hopefully we don't see any of our guys sleeping with the fishes by Monday!

[S.R.]

Is Pat hurt though? He played 7 minutes today.

Frankly, I'd start Tucker instead of Pat, keep the Pat on Giannis look for a change of pace.

Yeah, liked the Powell start, would love to see Tucker start and PP back him up. Giannis' only streak of the game was in the 2nd Q vs Carroll.

Also liked getting JV rolling off the bench vs Monroe rather than forcing a couple of post-ups to start the game. Roll with that again.

[The Great One]

Just finished watching the 1st half(still don't know who won the game):

DeRozan - Amazing
Lowry - Awful. What the hell is wrong with this guy? everytime they lose he's out there throwing shades at Casey. But you watch him play, specially in these playoffs, he's been brutal. So indecisive.
Powell - solid half.
Ibaka - meh
Joseph - awful
Carroll - What the fuck? why is this guy still getting mins?

[The Great One]

If I could re-do last years draft - i'm taking Maker over Poeltl. And i'm a big Poeltl fan.

[slaw]

Which is exactly how Memphis wants the game played - slow deliberate offense against their set defense.

I've watched games 2-4 of this series. Spurs are lucky to be even. They are getting outplayed and out coached.