The Toronto Raptors‘ bubble burst on the tip of the Milwaukee Bucks’ antlers. By all means, Fear the Deer.
What was supposed to be as marquee a Monday night match-up as you can get in October — the first ever meeting of two 6-0 teams — had some air let out of it from the get go. Neither teams’ stars – Giannis Antetokounmpo for Milwaukee and Kawhi Leonard for Toronto – were available (more on that below).
Here are four takeaways from the Raptors’ 124-109 road loss to the Bucks.
[snippet id=4267701]
No superstar for each team made it an even contest, right?
Antetokounmpo was ruled out of Monday’s game as part of the NBA’s concussion protocol after being elbowed in the head Saturday, while Leonard was rested by Toronto with a game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday in mind. It meant that a historic game was without its two marquee players.
But no, those two missing from action didn’t cancel each other out. Not even close.
In a contest of two teams with new coaching staffs and new faces in their starting lineups, the Bucks ran away with it. They firmly controlled the game almost from the tip and led by 15 after three quarters as the Raptors were on their way to their worst offensive showing (just 38 per cent shooting from the floor) and their worst defensive showing (allowing the Bucks to shoot 48.4 per cent from the floor) all in one night.
Plenty of caveats: the Raptors rotation was upside down as not only was Leonard out, but so were Fred VanVleet (strained toe) and OG Anunoby (personal reasons). Delon Wright was back but has played about two minutes all season. The lack of depth was most evident in a bench unit that had barely met each other. Malachi Richardson and Lorenzo Brown were getting significant time with predictable results and the Bucks’ reserves outscored the Raptors’ bench 35-12 through the first three quarters.
Some of these early injuries have been positive, in a way, as it’s allowed head coach Nick Nurse to get a look at some of his depth at wing. Norman Powell got the start in place of Leonard in this instance and continued to show some signs that he’s put last season’s debacle behind him. With Powell, less is more and that he only shot three times in 27 minutes (making two threes) while chipping in with three assists without a turnover is significant progress. For now, ‘try-too-hard’ Norm is nowhere in sight and that bodes well.
Kawhi’s load management strategy is a mystery
The biggest variable when Raptors president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster traded for Kawhi Leonard was the former San Antonio Spurs star’s health. How would he hold up under the NBA grind after a mysterious (even to Leonard) quadriceps injury last season limited him to nine games. Those questions have been mostly answered: Leonard didn’t miss a workout in training camp or the pre-season. He played 37 minutes on opening night — the most he’d logged since the 2017 playoffs — and then played 36 minutes two nights later.
All systems go.
But Monday night’s game against Milwaukee marked the second time Leonard has sat out one half of a back-to-back set. It made perfect sense on Oct. 20 in Washington — it was the Raptors’ third game in four nights and part of a stretch of four in six. This one was a little different. The Raptors are coming off two days between games and after they play on Tuesday at home against Philadelphia they have two more days off before heading to Phoenix to play Friday.
The team has been vague about their plan for Leonard’s workload. On Sunday, at practice, Nurse said this when asked if Leonard would play both ends of the back-to-back, “We’re gonna go see and go play him. He’s feeling good and feeling fine, and we’ll go from there.”
But Leonard met with Nurse after practice and the decision was made for him to stay home and — presumably — play on Tuesday against Philly.
It would be great to know the thinking behind these decisions and who is driving the bus on them, but that’s not likely to happen. It’s not the kind of stuff you can announce in advance and after what he went through last season you know Leonard is actively managing his workload, as he should, and the Raptors can only want what Leonard deems best for Leonard.
When he sat out against Washington, it was explained this way (after the fact):
“There’s a plan, the plan is we look at it as we go here and take it a little cautiously, you know what I’m saying?” Nurse said. “I think that’s the plan, I’d hate to sit here and say there’s no plan whatsoever.
“There was a heavy moment [in the schedule] at the beginning here and I think if you look down the road and it’s heavy again, I think we’ll do it again. But if it’s isolated and there’s some days leading in and days after, we’ll look at it as we go.”
After this week, the Raptors will have 10 sets of back-to-backs remaining. Presuming Leonard plays in only half of those 20 games and is otherwise healthy he would be on track for 70 or so games played. I’m sure the Raptors would have signed that scorecard in July when they made the deal. After all, there are no back-to-backs in the playoffs.
[snippet id=3360195]
The grass might be greener on the other side
Mike Budenholzer was the leading free agent coaching candidate available last summer and was the first candidate the Raptors interviewed after they met with applicants on staff already — assistant coaches Nurse and Rex Kalamian and former Raptors 905 head coach Jerry Stackhouse.
It was never clear how enthusiastic he was for the job, and in some corners, it was believed the whole plan was to leverage the Toronto job to bid up the Bucks where the chance to coach Antetokounmpo was considered too good to pass up. Maybe if the Raptors had acquired Leonard earlier in the process things might have been different.
The Raptors would have you believe they got the man they wanted in Nurse and they may have – it’s hard to argue with his start. One thing that’s clear is Budenholzer can coach. The trademarks of his best teams in Atlanta – the Hawks won 60 games and made it to the conference finals under him in 2014-15 – were a well-spread floor and great ball movement. They were second behind Golden State in both assists and points off assists that season and they did it while playing elite defence.
Budenholzer’s impact in Milwaukee is already evident as the Bucks have jumped from 14th to fourth in assists and 16th to sixth in points off assists. They were second in team defence to Boston coming into the game and they have gone from 25th in three-point attempts with 24.7 a game to second, averaging 39.8.
The scary thing for the rest of the East is that they are so early in Budenholzer’s time there. His teams typically are near the league leaders in volume of passes and the Bucks are 29th in the league so far. For Bud’s Bucks, the best is likely yet to come.
Nurse wasn’t ready to wave the white flag
It was interesting to see at what point Nurse would wave the towel and begin coaching to make sure the Raptors would have some legs Tuesday night against Philadelphia. For all the discussion about preserving Leonard, Lowry is every bit as important to what the Raptors are hoping to do this season and he’s going to be 33 before the season ends.
Lowry and Danny Green came back into the game with 9:25 to play, trailing by 15, joining C.J. Miles, Pascal Siakam and Lorenzo Brown. A pair of Kris Middleton threes quickly pushed the Bucks lead to 19 and a third by Tony Snell put them up by 21 with eight minutes left. Amazingly, Nurse kept his starters in after a commercial timeout with 7:35 left down 23, suggesting that perhaps his former boss Dwane Casey had more influence on Nurse than we’ve been led to believe.
You could only wince as Lowry ended up on his back on multiple possessions late in an un-winnable game. It took this long but we finally got our first Nurse ‘What was he thinking?’ moment. Finally, with 4:49 left down 22, he called it a night. Lowry finished 0-of-9 from three after shooting 53-per-cent through the opening six games, although the league leader in assists did have 15 helpers.
Serge Ibaka had 30 points and nine rebounds while Pascal Siakam had a career-high 22 points and nine rebounds, along with four steals. Overall, the difference in the game came from deep as the Bucks were 19-of-45 from three to the Raptors’ 9-of-45. Toronto goes home with their winning streak snapped and first-hand knowledge that no one is ready to concede them the Eastern Conference, least of all Milwaukee.
[relatedlinks]