TORONTO – RJ Barrett and the Toronto Raptors had no excuses for their dismal effort against the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday.
The Bucks embarrassed the home team 128-104 before 17,829 at Scotiabank Arena despite having Raptors starters Barrett, Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickly, Jakob Poeltl and Gradey Dick on the floor together for the first time this season. .
“We’ve got to do a better job,” said Barrett, who returned from a three-game absence due to the flu and scored a team-leading 25 points.
“Tonight wasn’t something we got used to with each other. I think we didn’t play hard enough from top to bottom. We have to figure it out. There is no excuse for what is happening. “We all have to be better.”
The Raptors (8-27) have lost 13 of their last 14 outings.
The return of Barrett and Quickley’s recent return after missing 30 of the team’s first 33 games were expected to result in a more competitive Raptors roster. But the Bucks dominated Toronto in 3-point shooting, making 22 of 44 while Toronto made 9 of 35 from beyond the arc.
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“They’re a good 3-point shooting team.” Raptors coach Darko Rajkovic said: “As a team, they are third best in (shooting) percentage in the entire league and have one of the best players in the game (Giannis Antetokounmpo) at creating ISO.
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“I think Scottie did a great job guarding him one-on-one. But our closing situation was not good.”
As a result, Antetokounmpo recorded his fourth triple-double of the season and third triple-double of his career against the Raptors, accumulating a season-high 13 assists with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
However, Antetokounmpo, whose availability was doubtful due to a knee injury, played only 28 minutes. This ended the streak of scoring more than 20 points in 27 games this season. Many of his assists were the result of Damian Lillard’s sharpshooting. He scored 25 points, including 5 3-pointers. Bobby Portis added 20 more.
“We didn’t play tonight, so that’s disappointing,” Barrett said.
Lillard’s offensive power came 26 minutes into the game.
Barnes scored 21 points and center Poeltl added 12. Quickley and Dick each scored 11 points.
The Bucks led 28-19 after the first quarter, 66-47 at halftime, and 99-75 after three quarters. Milwaukee (18-16) won for the fourth time in nine starts since winning the NBA Cup three weeks ago.
The Raptors welcomed Milwaukee guard Gary Trent Jr. with a video scoreboard tribute early in the second quarter. He spent three years with the Raptors before signing with the Bucks as a free agent last summer. He scored 17 points in his return.
By: Antetokounmpo returned to the game Monday night with three stitches to close a cut to the base of his right pinky. Antetokounmpo hit his finger on the rim while trying to chase down Barrett’s fast break dunk late in the second quarter. Antetokounmpo said his fingers were ‘a little numb’ but insisted he was fine.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
