TORONTO – RJ Barrett and the Toronto Raptors had no excuses for his or her dismal effort towards the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday.
The Bucks embarrassed the house crew 128-104 earlier than 17,829 at Scotiabank Enviornment, despite the fact that the Raptors had starters Barrett, Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Rapidly, Jakob Poeltl and Gradey Dick on the ground collectively for the primary time this season.
“We now have to do a greater job, straight up,” mentioned Barrett, who returned from lacking three video games due to the flu to attain a team-leading 25 factors.
“Tonight wasn’t about us getting used to one another. I don’t suppose we performed laborious sufficient, from high to backside. We now have to determine it out. There’s no excuse for what’s taking place proper now. All of us should be higher.”
The Raptors (8-27) have misplaced 13 of their final 14 outings.
Barrett’s return, coupled with Quickley’s latest comeback after he missed 30 of the crew’s first 33 video games, was supposed to supply a extra aggressive Raptors roster. However the Bucks trounced Toronto within the three-point division, nailing 22 of 44 in comparison with Toronto’s 9 of 35 capturing from past the arc.
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“They’re a superb three-point capturing crew,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic mentioned. “As a crew, they’re third greatest in (capturing) proportion in the entire league they usually have the most effective gamers (Giannis Antetokounmpo) within the recreation in creating ISOs.
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“I feel that Scottie did an honest job guarding him one-on-one. However our closeouts weren’t good.”
Because of this, Antetokounmpo piled up a season-high 13 assists to go along with 11 factors and 12 rebounds for his fourth triple-double of the season and third profession triple-double towards the Raptors.
However Antetokounmpo, who was questionable with a sore knee, performed solely 28 minutes. Because of this, he noticed his 20-plus level streak in his 27 video games this season stopped. A lot of his assists had been the results of Damian Lillard’s sharpshooting. He scored 25 factors, together with 5 three-pointers. Bobby Portis chipped in 20 extra.
“We didn’t have our combat tonight, in order that’s disappointing,” Barrett mentioned.
Lillard’s offensive output arrived in solely 26 minutes of enjoying time.
Barnes chipped in 21 factors whereas centre Poeltl added 12. Quickley and Dick had been good for 11 apiece.
The Bucks led 28-19 after the primary quarter, 66-47 at halftime, and 99-75 after the third. Milwaukee (18-16) received for the fourth time in 9 begins since claiming the NBA Cup three weeks in the past.
The Raptors feted Milwaukee guard Gary Trent Jr. with a video scoreboard tribute firstly of the second quarter. He spent three years with the Raptors earlier than signing with the Bucks as a free agent final summer season. He scored 17 in his return.
BASELINES: Antetokounmpo wanted three stitches to shut a lower close to the bottom of his proper pinky on Monday night time, and returned to the sport. Antetokounmpo banged his finger on the rim whereas attempting to chase down Barrett’s fast-break dunk late within the second quarter. Antetokounmpo mentioned his finger was “form of numb,’ however insisted he was advantageous.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 6, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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