Why The Raptors Defense Struggled Against Giannis Antetokounmpo

I was hopeful for about five minutes. For the first time this season, the Raptors were fully healthy. We were finally going to see their starting lineup for more than four minutes.

It was time for some good hoops. Until it wasn’t.

Toronto got outclassed in virtually every single way, losing 128-104 to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.

Antetokounmpo put up 11 points, 12 rebounds, and 13 assists as he carved up the Raptors as a playmaker, resulting in 22 made threes for Milwaukee. Damian Lillard, Bobby Portis, and Gary Trent Jr combined for 62 points, and it wasn’t close throughout.

RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes each dropped 20+ points, but the Raptors struggled on the defense giving up 120+ points in yet another game.

The only bright spot was Scottie Barnes doing a windmill dunk. That’s all that can be remembered from this one.

After the game, Darko Rajakovic mentioned that he felt the team was disconnected and lacked energy. It felt like it.

The Raptors lost the 3-point battle by 39 points tonight. They hit 9 threes and took 9 less than Milwaukee did.

Jamal Shead played ahead of Davion Mitchell as Mitchell registered a “DNP – Coach’s decision”. After the game, Coach Rajakovic said that Mitchell would still eventually play but that Shead was a part of the team’s long-term plans. That will be very interesting to monitor moving forward.

It’ll be interesting to see how the rotation will look as this team continues to be healthy (hopefully).

If you’d like to watch a more detailed version of this breakdown, you can check out the Raptors Republic Youtube channel for Esfandiar Baraheni’s full analysis.

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