Friday Hoops- Milwaukee Bucks vs Toronto Raptors
The (47-29) Milwaukee Bucks take on the (23-53) Toronto Raptors for some Friday Night NBA action. The Bucks have six games left. If they can manage to go 3-3, they’ll finish with 50 wins.
(In keeping the “receipts” that is slightly less than where I had them back in January at (53-29)
The game is at home at the “beer keg”, the Fiserv Forum. The Bucks have just not looked good lately. Milwaukee gets the comfort of being at home, plus the Raptors have stunk it up on the road playing to a 10-27 record away from the Scotiabank arena
If the playoffs started tomorrow Toronto would be out. Toronto has lost their last 15 games.
Of course, it seemed like playing Washington and Memphis should also be “layup” wins. But the Bucks lost both of those so…
My colleague Glenn Kaplan does an excellent job here of dissecting the injury report.
He also does a great job of expressing some frustration with the recent Bucks losses.
Milwaukee lost game one of the season series. The Bucks won game two of their season series (128-112).
Milwaukee Bucks keys
Don’t Turn the Basketball Over
The Bucks are 8th in the NBA in team turnovers.
But lately, they have been slipping. Especially when it comes to exerting defensive pressure to cause turnovers.
Against Memphis they only had 11 turnovers (good) but they only caused 8. So, they lost the turnover battle.
Milwaukee also has had some poor turnover games recently. Against Washington in a loss the team had 12 turnovers. However, they only caused 10. (Another turnover battle loss.) Against New Orleans in a loss the team had 14 turnovers. Against LA, in a loss, the team also had 17 turnovers.
What it seems to come down to is if Milwaukee can do a better job of protecting the ball and win the “turnover battle” then they can win.
Time to get a game from Khris Middleton
Quality minutes for the Bucks and Middleton are a “must”. It is time to start to see Iron Shaping Iron.
Against the Lakers, Middleton looked about as bad as he has looked in a while scoring 12 points on 4 of 15 shooting. He didn’t play against Memphis and against Washington he just looked “ok”. (24 points on 9 of 19 shooting.)
Related: 3 Studs and a Dud in a Loss to Memphis
Middleton needs 2 or 3 good momentum games to get his going for the upcoming NBA playoffs.
The Opponent: The Toronto Raptors
Toronto is not very good right now. Losing 15 in a row is certainly evidence of that.
In a (133-85) loss to Minnesota, Toronto started Jalen McDaniels, Garrett Temple, Malik Williams, rookie Gradey Dick and Immanuel Quickley. That is simply not going to cut it.
Scottie Barnes is in his third year and has also been inconsistent. Now he is out and hurt.
For Toronto guys just seem to disappear in stretches. That’s also not good.
Former Buck Jordan Nwora is playing for the Raptors.
Things to tell your buddies as you are watching the game
- Want a “COVID” flashback? Check out this older game preview when Toronto used to have to play in Florida due to travel restrictions.
- The Toronto Huskies played the New York Knicks in 1946. Many have argued that it is the first, “official” game in NBA history.
- Alvin Robertson is the career leader for the Bucks in steals per game. Robertson averaged 2.7 steals a game for Milwaukee.
- Alvin Robertson is the first player to score a point for this iteration of the Toronto Raptors franchise.
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