(50-8) MILWAUKEE BUCKS, 108 VS. (42-16) TORONTO RAPTORS, 97 SCOTIABANK ARENA TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020
TORONTO RAPTORS QUOTES
NICK NURSE (HEAD COACH)
On a very good defensive team getting you out of sync … Yeah, a little bit, I think. Look at the shooting percentages it wasn’t too good either way. Pretty good defensive game both ways, I was pretty happy. I thought we were amazing for about 22 minutes and then we had the ball and had a little weird turnover in transition there to start their run and end the second quarter. I don’t know, we just didn’t for some reason make enough of those shots. I think we had some pretty god ones there. You probably can’t have Serge (Ibaka) go one-for-10, Kyle (Lowry) go one-for-seven and Fred (VanVleet) go three-for-nine, but in saying that Serge had like 21 straight great games. You are going to have that one once in a while and tonight wasn’t his night, but that’s all right, he has been amazing this year, Kyle has, Fred has, and tonight it just didn’t go in.
On taking a franchise record 52 three point attempts tonight … There was 52 of them and let’s say 40 of them were probably decent, if I had to pick something without watching it. We had a couple shot-clockers that were bombs, you know the shot clock was running down. There was one that got blocked, so you would probably like to have that one back. There were a couple others, but I thought again, for the most part they weren’t that bad.
On touching the paint enough on your drives … Probably not, I don’t know what the numbers say, but probably not. I would have liked to hit them multiple times in a possession. I think I can remember Pascal (Siakam) hitting a corner three right in front of our bench and it was a really good possession where we drove it, kicked it, swung it, drove it, kicked it, then it was Pascal standing all alone in the corner. I thought we needed a few more of those types of multiple paint touch possessions.
On using any defensive tricks that might be useful in future matchups … Well, I didn’t get to too many of them. I only got a few possessions of zone and a few possessions of press. I think the press looked like it would have been okay. They were tightrope-ing it down the sidelines and bobbling it around and we couldn’t quite come up with them. Next game I will probably do a few more things. I didn’t get the (Bucks) lineup I thought I was going to get to do some of the stuff. Maybe next game.
PASCAL SIAKAM (22 points, six rebounds, three assists)
How tough was it to get the momentum back coming out of halftime? We were trying to come out aggressively in the second half, but they also came out being aggressive and they made some good plays out there. They chipped back into the game, like with free throws and little things like that, and they got comfortable. But I still think we did a pretty decent job.
Did it feel different than a normal game? It was a good game. A lot of energy out there. They played hard. We played hard. It’s always a good matchup against teams like that … Kudos to them. They played a good game.
Are games like this useful for evaluating things? I think every game of the season we have to use to our advantage. Obviously understanding what it’s like in the playoffs and taking these games as a learning experience win or lose. We have to keep being ourselves and learning from it. If we have to do things differently, do them differently, and if we don’t, then continue to play our game. We all know what it takes in the playoffs and you have to do a better job if you want to take that next step.
KYLE LOWRY (10 points, six assists, four rebounds)
Against a team like that, how tough is it to get the momentum back? It wasn’t tough to get it back. We just started the third off slow and didn’t make shots and we missed a lot of open shots tonight. They made some shots and they were aggressive, (and) got to the free throw line more than we did. It’s one game. They played well – well, neither one played well – but they got the win, so they played better than us tonight.
Is there anything you guys can do differently to get in the paint more? Screen a little more, maybe screen a little harder, play a little faster, up tempo. But we made some shots. I hit a couple threes, Serge (Ibaka) hit a couple threes, (Pascal Siakam) hit a couple. We make more threes and space it out a little bit more, the game changes a lot.
(50-8) MILWAUKEE BUCKS, 108 VS. (42-16) TORONTO RAPTORS, 97 SCOTIABANK ARENA TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020
MILWAUKEE BUCKS QUOTES
MIKE BUDENHOLZER (HEAD COACH)
On tonight’s game… Just a good effort by our group. Obviously the end of the second quarter was really big for us; we were not having a very good half. They were great. But somehow we found a three or four-minute stretch to close the gap and then the third quarter, on both ends of the court, lot of things where we want them to be and able to close it out. So it’s a good win for us on the road tonight.
What was the difference for you offensively in the third quarter? I think you get a little bit of rhythm of the aggressiveness that they were playing with, to the ball. Especially Giannis (Antetokounmpo), I thought his composure and kind of just seeing the court, reading the court. Then you got to make some shots. Different guys stepped up and made shots. We got to play in transition, I think it was a 19 point defensive quarter, so you’re getting a lot of stops; you get out to run, hopefully play against a defence that’s not set.
On how you made the Raptors work on offence tonight… We try and make everybody work, so tonight you got your hands full. They have a lot of great players and they make things really hard on you. But I think, overall, some real positives to take from tonight from our defence.
KHRIS MIDDLETON (22 points, eight rebounds, three assists)
Was this the type of game you expected tonight? I guess you could say that. They play hard every night just like us. The question of, “is that what we expected?” I guess so, for them to come out like they did with their crowd behind them.
What did the team feel it had to improve on in the second half to make a push? Just settle down. I think we played into their hands in the first quarter. I think we could have used the back-to-back as an excuse if we let it keep happening for the whole game. Eventually we settled down and took advantage of their schemes somewhat. I think we played a much more controlled gamed after that.
Do you get any extra satisfaction getting the win tonight after last year’s playoffs? Not really. We won it last year during the regular season. It doesn’t guarantee a win in the playoffs. It’s a great win against a great team that we can see down the road in the future.
GIANNIS ANTETOKOUNMPO (19 points, 19 rebounds, eight assists)
What changed in the second half? We came out in the second quarter and started knocking down shots. They were physical defensively and we weren’t playing great basketball. We were able to close it out in the second quarter hard. We came out of the half playing better, moving the ball better, we were knocking down shots and defending better. It’s good.
On tonight’s game… This is the second time we’ve played Toronto. We got the first one at home. We knew they were going to come out and set the tone and play good. They are a very good team that doesn’t stop playing hard. That’s why they win so many games and that’s why they’re so good. We expect that. We knew that we had to come out and get a win.
Was game six on your mind at all? Of course. You always remember the last time you played here, the feelings you had. It was definitely on my mind.
The view from left field 