D'Amato: Bucks win fight by sticking together
The Milwaukee Bucks wore their alternate black jerseys and sported a dark mood to match Thursday night. They were itching for a fight. They played defense like the ’85 Chicago Bears, with sharpened elbows and bad intentions. They gang shackled.
The bedraggled, bewildered Toronto Raptors didn’t know what hit them, except that it was big and nasty and knocked them around from the opening tip to the merciful final buzzer.
Watching the sixth-seeded Bucks utterly destroy the third-seeded Raptors, 104-77, in Game 3 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series, it was hard to believe this team once was 22-30, disjointed and dispirited.
“(Management) could have blown it up, made all kinds of trades, played for a draft pick,” guard Jason Terry said.
Sometimes, the best move is the one not made, even when fans are screaming for heads to roll.
The maturation of Giannis Antetokounmpo, the growth of rookies Malcolm Brogdon and Thon Maker, the comeback of Khris Middleton, the contributions of Greg Monroe, Matthew Dellavedova, Tony Snell … it’s all come together like storm clouds spawning a tornado.
GAME STORY: An overwhelming performance
RELATED: Dellavedova adds shooting to gritty personality
RELATED: No home-court letdown this time
The Bucks still have to win two more games to take their first playoff series in 16 years, but they are a very different team from the one that lost Jabari Parker on Feb. 8 and appeared headed for another lottery pick.
“We played with a sense of desperation,” Terry said in explaining the turnaround. “We got our spirit up. Our spirit was low. We lacked trust and we lacked discipline on both ends of the floor. In times of adversity, character is revealed.”
The Bucks can take a commanding 3-1 series by winning at home again Saturday. If they keep playing like this, the Raptors might as well get their golf clubs out of storage.
Toronto, and maybe all of Canada, probably wasn’t fond of Rashad Vaughn taking and making a three-pointer with 4 seconds left in a game that was decided, oh, three quarters earlier but, hey, somebody had to light the victory cigar.
The Bucks so thoroughly outplayed the Raptors that they led, 48-17, midway through the second quarter. Forty-eight. To seventeen. It has to rank as one of the best stretches of basketball in franchise history.
The energized Bradley Center crowd, decked out in black T-shirts handed out before the game, was in full-throated roar for 48 minutes. The fans went crazy when Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was introduced, but their late-game chant of “MVP! MVP!” was directed at someone else.
The last time the Bucks won a playoff series, Antetokounmpo was 6 years old, selling pencils for pennies on street corners in Athens, Greece.
Now all of 22, the most talented player to wear a Bucks uniform since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has put his team into position to possibly make a deep run. Guaranteed, nobody wants to play this team right now, except that the Raptors have no choice.
Antetokounmpo had a relatively quiet game by Greak Freak standards, but even when his stats don’t scream (19 pounds, eight rebounds, four assists) his presence does. He let the game come to him, didn’t force things, recognized that the Raptors were packing the paint, a tactic that worked in Game 2. His patience is perhaps the most impressive area of his growth as a player.
“Each year, he’s gotten better,” said coach Jason Kidd. “He’s just starting. He’s only 22 years old. He’s just starting his journey and it’s going to be a fun journey.
BOX SCORE: Milwaukee 104, Toronto 77
NOTES: Kidd cuts down center rotation
BUCKS PODCAST: Chance to swing series at home
NBA: Scoreboard | Thursday game recaps
“He’s going to take the state of Wisconsin on a ride that will be enjoyable. And the city of Milwaukee. We all should sign up. For those who have signed up already, you’ve got a front-row seat. He won’t disappoint. He’s going to get better.”
The Bucks are playing their best basketball of the season – their best basketball in many seasons – at the right time.
“They ambushed us,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. “There’s no aspect of our game that we executed whatsoever. They played at a high level. They just outworked us. Our disposition wasn’t what it should be.”
Remember when the Bucks were green and growing?
Well, they’re mean and nasty now.