TORONTO — It had changed for Khris Middleton in the space of an hour. From shrugging off an on-court interview question about the significance of winning on the same court that was the site of his teams elimination — "We’ve put it behind us… it’s a new year… etc.," to acknowledging that, yeah, beating the Toronto Raptors Tuesday night was something more than a mid-winter win for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 58th game of the season.
"You have bad memories of a place and you come back to it, it kind of becomes a habit to let those thoughts creep back in," Middleton said after the Bucks beat the Raptors 108-97 to raise their record in back-to-back games to 8-0. "But, you know, you just kind of settle down and focus play by play. Possession by possession. We won last year in the regular season and learned it doesn’t guarantee anything. But this… this was a great win against a great team that we might see down the road in the future."
The Bucks are paying a price of sorts for blowing a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals and then steamrolling their way to the best record in the NBA, including clinching a playoff spot earlier than any team in league history. They are where the Raptors were for so many seasons, waking up and looking at the gaudy numbers and reading all the nice press reports and thinking to their collective selves "Cool, but what does it all mean? What does it matter?"
Whether or not they said or thought or believed this game was a bit of measuring stick is irrelevant: Everybody else is doing the thinking and feeling and talking for them.
[snippet id=4740307]
It was interesting tuning in to TNT’s pre-game coverage and hearing Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal discuss how the Bucks ought to approach the stretch, especially if they get a shot at the 70-win mark. O’Neal spoke about the 2004-2005 season when the Miami Heat lost to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals and lamented about how a deep thigh bruise hampered him down the stretch and through the playoffs. He drew comparisons to the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has missed games with back and shoulder issues and, adding in Kawhi Leonard for good measure, suggested the Bucks need to win as many games as possible as soon as possible and give Antetokounmpo a decent rest. Antetokounmpo played 25 minutes Monday in a 137-134 overtime win over the Washington Wizards and played 38 Tuesday.
"Forget 70," O’Neal said.
The last time the Bucks paid a visit to Toronto their head coach, Mike Budenholzer, left answering questions about being out coached by Nick Nurse. And there was a memorable pouting post-game news conference after Game 6 in which Antetokounmpo walked off mid-session when he was asked about the importance of experience. Middleton was left sitting by himself at the podium in the bowels of the Scotiabank Arena. Antetokounmpo had been informed as he took the podium that ESPN had published a story at the buzzer of Game 6 suggesting he had already resolved to leave Milwaukee unless the team went on a Finals run this season.
Tuesday, he admitted the Game 6 and series loss was on his mind. But he also talked about the Bucks having a "next man up" mentality, talking up recently-acquired veteran Marvin Williams — who had a nice 16 minutes with nine points on three three-balls while gobbling up four defensive rebounds – as well as Brook Lopez and Middleton.
Last year’s series loss was a bitter pill for Middleton, too. He went into free agency with people wondering whether he was one of those players whose game didn’t translate into the post-season. It was Middleton, remember, who missed a three-pointer with 10.5 seconds left in regulation time in Game 3 here, with the Raptors leading 96-94. True, he forced overtime on a put-back but you wonder: How would the Raptors – the pre-championship Raptors, remember – respond under pressure already starring at a 2-0 deficit.
What would have happened had the Bucks grabbed a 3-0 lead in the series?
Middleton scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half on Tuesday.
Woulda, shoulda, coulda. Win a title and no one asks those questions or makes those observations. Tuesday, somebody asked Williams – a 15-year veteran who was signed on Feb. 10 after being waived by the Charlotte Hornets and who will be counted on to, in the words of Budenholzer "guard a whole bunch of different players" – about the mood of his new teammates before this measuring stick game. He laughed.
"Um, guys were pretty relaxed," he said. "In fact, this whole team is much more relaxed than what I thought they’d be when I got here. It’s just how they do it. It gets to seven or 7:30 and they’re all business. But otherwise? Very relaxed."
We’ll see.
[relatedlinks]
