Raptors go Buck hunting, and bring home dinner.
It was a great night to be a Raptors fan, but not an easy night.
This year’s playoff run is off to a better start than any previous year for Toronto, as they finally managed to close out a series in 6 games.
But damn, it was an ugly, white-knuckle ride from the middle of the third quarter on.
With the Raptors up 25 points, and seemingly on their way to a rout of the Bucks, I went upstairs to put one of my daughters back in bed. I won’t lie. I was relaxed, thinking that it was already over, and I could start thinking about Cleveland. I almost tweeted about the second round at that point.
I came back downstairs 15 minutes later, and my stomach and jaw hit the floor simultaneously. What the hell just happened? This was supposed to be over already.
I had to suffer through what I thought I would only ever experience as a Detroit Lions fan. I was ready to go back to the corner for another crying session when the Bucks took the lead late in the fourth, but I was saved by the clutch three-ball from Toronto’s own Cory Joseph — his first bucket of the game. A vicious two-handed slam from DeMar brought back the hope, and an intercepted pass by Patrick Patterson with three seconds left allowed me to breath.
DeMar vs. Giannis
When I wrote the Raps vs. Bucks playoff preview, I had predicted that the Raps would take the series in six games, which they did. That was pretty much the only thing that I got right.
Throughout the entire series, DeMar DeRozan showed us why he is a three time All-Star. Well, if you forget about his abysmal performance in Game Three when he only scored eight points, all of which came from the charity stripe. I had predicted that he would average 30 a game, but he still ended up averaging a respectable 23.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.7 steals, while shooting 44 per cent from the field and 92 per cent from the free throw line. He put up an impressive 33 point in Game Four, and 32 in the Game Six clincher.
But as good as DeMar was over most of the series, everyone was playing in the shadow of the “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo. His Milwaukee Bucks may be going home, but Giannis has put the rest of the NBA on notice; he will be the one to take the crown from the head of King James. Not today, but a couple years from now, he will be the unstoppable force in the NBA.
Let’s talk about Game Three…
As Riley Evans and Aaron Lieberman love to remind me, I am a homer. I will glue my face to the television when one of my beloved teams are playing. That said, even I could do nothing other than turn off the TV and hide in the corner crying.
I don’t have words to describe what happened that night, it took me back to the days when the face of the Raptors was Andrea Bargnani. At this point, I was no longer confident that the Raptors could get past a young, long, and athletic Bucks team. Going down two games to one, with another road game in front of a hostile Milwaukee crowd on the horizon wasn’t an appetizing prospect.
Closing out the Bucks
After the debacle that was Game Three, the Raptors came out and did something that they had not accomplished in four straight playoff runs. They won three games in a row, two of which were in hostile territory on the road.
It was a grind-it-out defensive war with the occasional offensive outburst. Serge Ibaka brought the defensive toughness and rim protection that we had lost when Big Biz left for Orlando last offseason. A combined effort by DeMarre Carroll, PJ Tucker (my new favourite Raptor) and Patrick Patterson managed to keep the Greek Freak from doing any more damage than he did.
The turning point in the series was when Coach Casey put Norman Powell in the starting lineup and had Jonas Valanciunas coming off the bench to match up with Greg Monroe. The change in tactics brought a third ball handler to combat the length of the Bucks starting five. IT also brought in a fresh JV to battle with Monroe, who had been a major offensive factor for the Bucks in Games One and Two.
Norman Powell’s Game 5
When you hear a Raptors stat line, either DeRozan or Lowry is usually leading the way offensively, but what Norman Powell did in Game Five will go down in Raptors history. The Raps needed the win in a bad way, and they needed someone to step up. Enter “Stormin” Norman, who led the team with 25 points, including a spectacular dunk that put Bucks 7’1” rookie center Thon Maker on a poster. He also went 3/3 from beyond the arc.
In fact, over the course of Games Four, Five, and Six, Powell was a perfect 9/9 from downtown.
Up Next
On Monday the Raptors will start the second round of the playoffs in Cleveland in a rematch of last year’s eastern-conference finals.
Cleveland is coming in off of a sweep on the seven seed Indiana Pacers, but the Cavs were dismal post all-star break to close the regular season. They are pretty much the same team they were last year when they knocked off the Raptors in six games, but the Raptors are most definitely not.
The Raptors are a much better team than they were last year. They are going to need big performances from DeRozan and Lowry, as well as productive bench scoring. Carroll and Tucker are going to have to work together to corral LeBron, and the Raptors are going to need Ibaka to be a consistent three point threat to allow DeRozan and Lowry to get into the paint.
Coach Casey will be answering a lot of questions over the next several days as to whether he is going to keep Powell in the starting lineup or if he plans to bring back JV to match up with Tristan Thompson.
It is going to be a monumental task to knock of King James and company, but if any team in the east has any hope of winning four games against the reigning NBA champions, it’s the Raptors,
My Homer Prediction: Raptors in 7
The Likely Outcome: Cavaliers in 6
Alex Scantlebury is a multi-sport contributor for theocho.ca. He is a professor for the Algonquin College public relations program. Aaron and Riley would like to thank him for giving them an extra hour each week to spend on Bleacher Report while he was teaching. Follow Alex on Twitter at@pen_ink_page.
