Here are five takeaways from the Toronto Raptors‘ 130-122 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
1. The Raptors just didn’t show up defensively. Toronto allowed a season-high 44 points in the first quarter against a Bucks side without Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, and it comes down to a lack of execution.
Sure, it was a red-hot outing from Jrue Holiday, who scored on everyone the Raptors tried against him in spite of size difference, but he’s a great player who can play above his level when needed. What was inexcusable was just how often the Bucks got open on the simplest of plays.
Toronto’s transition defence was so slow that Milwaukee walked into 10 threes within the first eight seconds of the shot clock, including on the very first basket of the game when Holiday pulled up over a backpedalling defender. Toronto’s interior defence wasn’t much better, but the Raptors didn’t even give themselves a chance to compete with how much they leaked on defence. The Raptors lost the transition battle 24-11, negating all of the positives that took place on offence.
2. This was O.G. Anunoby’s worst game of the season. Similar to the Knicks game, Anunoby was unable to find his footing on offence, except he wasn’t able to come on strong at the end.
He shot 2-for-13 from the field despite mostly being set up for wide-open catch-and-shoot chances or cuts to the rim for layups, and his missed shots were especially costly on a night where the Bucks scored so frequently on the break.
In Anunoby’s defence, he only got two shots in the first quarter and a half — despite being covered by a smaller guard — so perhaps the offence could have tilted his way more often, but it led to him squeezing what chances he did have.
For example, on a breakaway where Pascal Siakam was trailing for a guaranteed two points, Anunoby decided to take off from the free-throw line and missed a layup short, allowing the Bucks to break the other way for a dunk. In the second half, Anunoby caught a pass with six seconds left while being covered by an All-Defence player in Holiday, but instead of swinging it out to the hot hand in Gary Trent Jr. at the top, Anunoby tried to go one-on-one and missed a one-legged fading midrange jumper.
Typically, Anunoby would be able to get it back on defence, but he was also leaky on that end. Holiday scored twice over Anunoby in the fourth quarter, and Anunoby had his back turned on a simple pick-and-pop three by Grayson Allen. If Anunoby was anywhere close to his average, the Raptors walk away with the win.
3. Holiday gave the Raptors fits all night. He was the best player on the floor, setting the tone early with his aggressiveness, and his teammates followed suit. Toronto had the pieces, on paper, to make things tough on him by throwing one of their half-dozen versatile wings on him, but Holiday literally torched everyone the Raptors tried.
Of his 16 field goals, Holiday scored twice over Fred VanVleet, three times on Trent Jr., three times on Anunoby, three times over Pascal Siakam, twice over Precious Achiuwa, and three more times in transition. In many of the instances, the Raptors guarded Holiday well and contested him both on the perimeter and at the basket, but Holiday was still able to muscle his way into angles to finish or use clever footwork to find space to shoot. However, even with Holiday going off all night, the Raptors still could have won this game had they just contained his teammates. Again, that is where the shaky transition defence came back to cost the team.
4. VanVleet had one of his best games of the year, but it wasn’t enough to push the Raptors over the top. Despite being checked by possibly the best defender at his position, VanVleet was still able to find space attacking off screens since the Bucks drop their centres back into the paint, freeing up room to shoot.
VanVleet had it going early and was also a catalyst through the fourth, where he drove in for three layups after Brook Lopez‘s silly ejection, while also nailing a stepback three. He faded at the end and had two layups blocked while the game was slipping out of hand, but on the whole this was one of VanVleet’s very best showings on the season. He fed Barnes for half of his makes on the night as part of his team-high seven assists, and confidently nailed six threes.
It’s probably too late to salvage the season, but at least VanVleet is still able to produce the highs to even out some of his low moments this season. As with everyone else on the team, VanVleet is struggling with his consistency and wildly different roles on a night-to-night basis.
5. Nick Nurse is understandably trying to turn the season around, but he is once again slipping into a nasty habit of overworking his starters. On the second night of a back-to-back, having just gone to overtime in New York, Nurse was once again asking for 40-plus minutes from his key players as he again returned to a seven-and-a-half man rotation.
It nearly produced two wins, but how sustainable is this desperate formula? Siakam logged 86 minutes out of a possible 101 minutes in the last 30 hours, Trent Jr. logged 85 minutes, while VanVleet and Barnes played 82 minutes. It’s no wonder that the Raptors looked so sluggish and faded down the stretch. The Bucks were also playing on a back-to-back, and were without their top-two players, but still managed to keep everyone’s minutes under 40 while walking away with the win.
Even if the Raptors grind out a few results this way, it won’t save the season and it’s a dangerous game to play.
