 Toronto Raptors | 121 – 107 |  Milwaukee Bucks |
 C+ | RJ Barrett 37 MIN, 27 PTS, 7 REB, 5 AST, 0 STL, 9-22 FG, 0-4 3FG, 9-11 FT, 0 BLK, 3 TO, -2 +/- Offensively, he couldn’t create for himself or for others early on, or in the fourth when Toronto went back to him. At one point he waved off a Poeltl screen to demand Graves set the screen, which whiffed. Miraculously, both defenders went with Barrett, and he threw his pass to a popping Graves out of bounds. He started hitting some turnaround jumpers and fading push shots late in the first half, but that’s not a sustainable diet. And defensively he just couldn’t hang with anyone, and his breakdowns led to overhelp and open jumpers for others. The offence moved away from his creation after a terrible start, and he helped on the offensive glass and as a second-side attacker. He found his way to a boatload of free throws. Sure, he found his role eventually (and then lost his swagger when Toronto made him a primary again late), but he ultimately underperformed. | ||||||||
 B+ | Collin Murray-Boyles 34 MIN, 19 PTS, 7 REB, 2 AST, 4 STL, 7-12 FG, 0-2 3FG, 5-5 FT, 1 BLK, 3 TO, 17 +/- It felt like a quiet night until you looked up and saw that he kind of stuffed the box score. He had overly aggressive help burned early by giving up an open triple. He was forcing some turnovers defensively, but he was also giving up blowbys. And he simply couldn’t solve Toronto’s rebounding issues in the first half. But he scored in transition, on the roll, and fought for a deep seal in the third for a layup after Shead found him over the top. He followed that with a pass to a cutting Martin for a layup. Toronto’s run seemed to energize him, as he started attacking defensive rebounds with a newfound verve. He flipped in an and-1 on the roll with Shead. In the fourth he really struggled to finish in the tight confines of the half court, excepting him punching a putback dunk with a minute left. | ||||||||
 A | Jakob Poeltl 31 MIN, 19 PTS, 11 REB, 1 AST, 3 STL, 9-14 FG, 0-0 3FG, 1-1 FT, 1 BLK, 2 TO, 6 +/- He finished with quite a productive, winning game, even if it took him some time to find his footing. He wasn’t the problem in the first half, but nor was he the solution. His closeouts were quite precise against Myles Turner, but because he was above the arc contesting shots, someone else had to help Poeltl on the glass early. No one could. At one point offensively, he saw his defender sagging deep into the paint, so he drove, saw a lob, and tossed it eight feet too high. Really found himself after half. He ran the floor early in the second half for a layup in transition, finished a nice Shead pass with a floater. He overplayed a pass and grabbed a steal in the fourth, then muscled away an offensive rebound and found a shooter. When Turner sagged into the paint midway through the fourth, Poeltl drove for an and-1. Smashed the offensive glass late to turn a close win into a seeming drubbing. | ||||||||
 A+ | Jamal Shead 34 MIN, 10 PTS, 3 REB, 16 AST, 2 STL, 4-10 FG, 1-5 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 23 +/- Outside of Martin heroics and some offensive rebounding, Shead was Toronto's half-court offence this game. And he did an incredible job. After missing some jumpers early, he found his way to a drive and spray for a triple late in the first quarter, which he followed by piling on assists. He really started to settle the ship as the offensive system tilted away from Barrett and towards him as the initiator. He rejected screens to great advantage. A nice pocket pass to a rolling Murray-Boyles for a dunk. In the third, when the Bucks overplayed his empty-corner pick and roll with Murray-Boyles, he found Poeltl cutting from the weak dunker spot for an easy floater. He even started scoring in the second half when Milwaukee overplayed his pass. At one point, he found a weak corner skip in the pick and roll, then the roller (CMB converted the and-1) after the offensive rebound. That’s a 1-2 punch combination, the first pass creating the opening for the second. He faded in the fourth as Toronto asked him to create less, but he kept the team afloat in the second and drove the car into the lead in the third. | ||||||||
 C- | Ja'Kobe Walter 29 MIN, 7 PTS, 6 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 2-12 FG, 1-7 3FG, 2-3 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, -12 +/- Not his night. He lost a rebounding battle early, swatted the putback, and then lost another rebounding fight. Some poor closeouts, giving straight-line drives, and no Raptor was helping on the back end. He struggled to contain Milwaukee’s jittery guards in Herro and Burries. He hit his first triple early in the fourth curling around a screen on a BLOB set, but his jumper was way off early, and he had little else to give on that end. During Toronto’s run in the second half, his defence became much stickier, but he didn’t turn it on offensively. He took some weird ones, including a floater from beyond the free-throw line that he missed long. Martin took his spot for much of the fourth until Toronto closed small. | ||||||||
 C | Jamison Battle 21 MIN, 6 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 2-6 FG, 1-4 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 2 +/- He didn’t hit his jumpers, but his presence actually breathed life into Toronto’s offence. But that's not enough for real production, and Rajakovic gave some of his minutes to others in the second half. | ||||||||
 C+ | Allen Graves 16 MIN, 3 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 1-5 FG, 0-3 3FG, 1-1 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 18 +/- His first-half shifts won minutes, but he had little to do with that. His missed his jumpers and was part of defensive breakdowns. In the third quarter, he cut to turn a Shead good shot into a great one for himself, converting that into an and-1. Still, a quiet night with a somewhat overstated plus-minus. | ||||||||
 C | Jaden Bradley 8 MIN, 3 PTS, 0 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 1-2 FG, 0-0 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -4 +/- He got a chance early with Toronto in the absolute doldrums, and he was totally unprepared to help. Committed a completely unforced turnover which led to uncontested points the other way. In the second half he hit a middy then airballed another. | ||||||||
 A+ | Alijah Martin 31 MIN, 27 PTS, 4 REB, 1 AST, 2 STL, 9-11 FG, 6-7 3FG, 3-4 FT, 1 BLK, 4 TO, 22 +/- Was he Toronto’s biggest offensive threat? Early on, very much so. An indictment on every Raptor above him on the depth chart that he was the only player capable of scoring or really finding much energy early on. But it also meant Martin did well attacking the paint on a night when no other Raptor seemed able to do so. His corner jumper was giving Toronto a breath (a gasping breath) of air, too. He also was the only Raptor to win a fight for a defensive rebound in the first quarter. If he didn’t explode early, the Raptors might have been down 20 points after a quarter. Saved the game. In the third he had some real self-creation with a middy fade. He scampered into an above-the-break triple to give Toronto its first lead midway through the third. He was even hitting triples late to keep Toronto alive when Shead and Barrett stopped being able to find advantages. | ||||||||
 B | Darko Rajakovic The Raptors were at a talent deficit missing three of their top four offensive players, and that is truly repulsive to admit. But guard play is important! Toronto opened the game horribly in virtually every area, and that reflects as poorly on Rajakovic as on the players. But the Raptors course corrected in the second half, and their defence really looked night and day. That, too, is on Rajakovic. I really liked him riding Martin, and Rajakovic settled into a parade of Shead pick and rolls in the half court. Still, the Raptors shouldn't have needed a miracle to beat the Bucks. | ||||||||
Things we saw
- Myles Turner is not a good NBA basketball player at this point in his career, in this modern NBA. (Are we certain he even played in this game?) If the Raptors are going to make a change at center, it will be for a good NBA player.
- Milwaukee had seven offensive rebounds before Toronto had a single defensive rebound. That’s legitimately unacceptable, no matter who is on the court. That’s cause for extreme alarm. It settled eventually, and Toronto even won the rebounding battle by 18 (!). But the team just wasn't ready to fight for rebounds and loose balls in the first half.
- For much of the night, Toronto looked smaller, slower, and far less capable of creating anything inside the arc. As a result, the worst team in the league shot almost 20 percentage points better from the field in the first half — despite Toronto winning the 3-point battle. That’s just totally unacceptable. Sure, Brayden Burries and Tyler Herro are good. But the Raptors are just completely devoid of real guard creation, and this is in comparison to, once again, the worst team in the NBA. Then the horses started galloping, and the Raptors pulled it out. But the takeaway remains the same: guard play wins basketball games. It just happened that Shead starting giving Toronto elite creation.
- I wrote before the season that at some point, the Raptors would need to call on Alijah Martin due to injury, and that he would respond. Well, that’s exactly what has happened. I didn’t expect it to happen so early, but Rajakovic has a (good) problem going forward. It would be a real issue if he can’t find room for Martin going forward as long as he keeps giving energy.
- I couldn’t fit this into the Barrett paragraph, but he struggled late in the fourth. He missed two consecutive corner triples the Raptors needed, and he committed an awful turnover in transition forcing a pass through a lane that had long ago closed (because he picked up his dribble to make the pass and would have traveled otherwise). Toronto survived behind some strong offensive rebounding and stingy defence, but it was a disappointing reversion after the team had found a an initiation balance that fit.
