NBA Playoffs 2019: Watch Raptors vs. Bucks Game 2, live stream, TV channel, date, time, odds, prediction, analysishttp://tmearn.com/wAPb5
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MILWAUKEE — The reluctance and indecisiveness that
dogged Kawhi Leonard’s supporting cast in the second round was gone
within two minutes, as the gun-shy Toronto Raptors opened these Eastern
Conference finals as veritable gunslingers.
The
torrid shooting display was enough to thoroughly scare the top-seeded
Milwaukee Bucks, but it didn’t last quite long enough to beat them.
Milwaukee claimed a http://tmearn.com/wAPb5,
surviving a playoff career-high seven threes from Kyle Lowry to gut out
a tight contest with a fourth-quarter comeback. Giannis Antetokounmpo
tallied 24 points, 14 rebounds and six assists for the Bucks, but three
three-pointers by center Brook Lopez, who finished with a playoff
career-high 29 points, swung the final period.
“This
is the Brook we all know and we all love,” Antetokounmpo said.
“[Raptors center] Marc Gasol is trying to be active and help a lot, and
Brook is going to be wide open. When he’s going, we’ve got to find him
more and more.”
Despite
the defeat, it was a promising start for the Raptors. Leonard had
carried his adopted team past the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday by
shooting 39 times, including a dramatic buzzer-beater, and finishing
with 41 of Toronto’s 92 points. The effort was both heroic and evidence
of an offense overly dependent upon him. Against Philadelphia, Lowry,
Pascal Siakam and Gasol all appeared comfortable slinking into the
background to watch Leonard’s impressive one-man show.
Beating
the Bucks, the East’s highest-scoring and most prolific
three-point-shooting team during the regular season, requires a
different formula based on better offensive balance.
Early
on, that’s exactly what the Raptors got. Siakam buried a three-pointer
to open the scoring, Lowry nailed two in a row moments later, and
Toronto’s floodgates opened. The Raptors hit six three-pointers in the
first quarter, 10 in the first half, and 15 by game’s end.
Toronto’s
outside shots were remarkable for their quantity, their diversity of
sources and their ambitious locations. The Bucks’ defense has been built
to cede midrange jumpers and “above the break” three-pointers in hopes
of protecting the paint and encouraging opponents to take
lower-percentage shots. It was immediately clear that the Raptors were
going to take the shots that were given to them, as Lowry stepped into
multiple deep threes and reserve guard Norman Powell, an afterthought
against Philadelphia, hit a pair of threes in the first half.
The
Raptors ranked sixth in three-point percentage during the regular
season but entered the Eastern Conference finals ranked 13th out of 16
playoff teams. In the run-up to the East finals, Coach Nick Nurse
sounded like a cross between a banker offering debt forgiveness and a
traveler awaiting a delayed train.
“For some
guys, you could even actually use those exact words: clean slate,” Nurse
said Wednesday, when asked about the Raptors’ hesitant and unreliable
shooting. “For some guys that weren’t playing much, this series presents
a new team, a new set of opportunities. Man, I hope we make some more
of those shots. I’ve been saying that for a while.”
Milwaukee,
by contrast, stumbled into Game 1 by missing its first six three-point
attempts, with some failing to draw iron at all. Antetokounmpo, the
least reliable three-point shooter in the Bucks’ starting lineup,
finally got one to go after nearly seven minutes of misfiring.
As
the second half continued, though, Toronto’s shooting gradually
regressed and Milwaukee’s picked up. Lopez scored 13 points in the
fourth quarter in a strong counterpunch.
“We
did a great job of sticking with what we’ve been doing,” Lopez said.
“Shots didn’t go in early, but we did a great job of grinding it out by
playing defense. There’s no quit in our team.”
Meanwhile,
the Bucks’ defense held Leonard to just two points in the final period,
and Antetokounmpo was pleased with his team’s physical and disciplined
defense that aimed to send Leonard to his left and clog the paint to
dissuade his drives.
“Kawhi
is going to hit shots,” Antetokounmpo said. “In the fourth quarter we
were tough on him. We made him feel us the whole game. We’re trying to
make him play one against five.”
Leonard still
finished with a game-high 31, but the Raptors, aside from Lowry, missed
all 15 of their fourth-quarter shot attempts. Their sterling early
scoring balance dried up as Milwaukee won the fourth quarter 32-17.
“Our
pace wasn’t good enough in the second half,” Lowry said. “The pace we
played with in the first half is the pace we need to play all game.
[Losing like that is] pretty frustrating. The fourth quarter killed us.”
For
the second straight series, Milwaukee narrowly avoided ceding the
home-court advantage it claimed by winning a league-best 60 games. In
the conference semis, a Game 1 dud against the Boston Celtics led to
adjustments from Antetokounmpo and four straight victories, each more
resounding than the last. After that experience, the Bucks had spent
their time off this week vocalizing the importance of dodging another
early-series stumble against Leonard and the Raptors.
“Against
Boston, you can go down 1-0 and still be fine,” Antetokounmpo said
Tuesday. “But against Toronto, it’s hard to be in that spot when you
lose the first game in your home.”
The Bucks
therefore leave Game 1 breathing a sigh of relief, knowing that their
youth and athleticism were able to outlast the Raptors down the stretch.
Knowing, too, that they endured a perimeter flurry that would have
broken many teams
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