MILWAUKEE — The Jekyll and Hyde Toronto Raptors aren’t done with you just yet.
Great defensively in the first quarter — holding the Milwaukee Bucks to just 12 points on 18 per cent shooting — the Raptors then surrendered a season-high 41 in the second quarter en route to a dismal 101-94 defeat.
Coming out of Washington, where the Raptors soundly beat the Wizards the night before, you would have sworn this team had turned a corner. But consistency just seems to befuddle this Raptors team like no other in recent history. The concept is completely foreign to them.
Not that they would, but the Raptors couldn’t even use the back-to-back excuse because the Bucks were coming off their own hard-fought win the night before over the L.A. Clippers.
The second Toronto unit, which was in so much disarray, seemed to have figured something out with the new players in those roles, when they came in and did what they had to do to be successful. Then that same unit that looked so good only 24 hours earlier reverted to the one that looked lost on Wednesday at home to those same Wizards.
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One area of consistency the Raptors seem to have down pat however — and one they could stand to lose — is a steady run of injuries that continued in Milwaukee when DeMarre Carroll, who has had plenty of injuries already in his short Toronto tenure, turned an ankle and had to leave the game midway through the third quarter.
“I think it was a foot and I rolled it, I’ll be okay,” Carroll said after the game. “ We’ll know in the morning, it’s more the next day. I’ve had a rolled ankle before and hopefully, it’s not too bad. Try to ice it a lot tonight and hopefully, it’ll be okay.”
As poor as that second quarter was, the Raptors still had ample opportunity to win this game.
Instead, they let a golden opportunity for another win slip through their fingers.
Milwaukee began the night ice cold and trailed the visitors by seven after the first quarter. But another second-quarter Raptors surrender followed and Toronto was back in the bind it was at home Wednesday against Washington.
This time, they did get things almost all the way back, cutting the deficit which had grown to 14 down to four points but could not close the gap any further, getting stops on four consecutive possessions but unable to convert on the other end.
DeMar DeRozan, who has been on such a run of late carrying the team offensively in the absence of Kyle Lowry, finally had the load catch up with him as he managed just 11 points, the second lowest game output of the season for the high-scoring guard, who came into the game fifth overall in league scoring. DeRozan was not all that surprised with the efforts the Bucks took to shut him down. He says that has been the norm with Jason Kidd-coached teams ever since he was in Brooklyn. The fact that he has had Eric Hughes, a former Raptors assistant who knows DeRozan as well as anyone in the league on his staff, only added to the disadvantage DeRozan was at coming into this one.
But the template for stopping the Raps isn’t that complicated and DeRozan knows it.
“With us having our best player out, go after me,” DeRozan said. “It’s something — I wouldn’t say worry — just something, let’s take advantage of that and understand what teams are going to do and be ready from the get go.”
Before Saturday night, DeRozan’s lowest scoring game of the seaso came when he was held to 10 in that win over Charlotte just before the all-star break.
DeRozan took just 12 shots Saturday night , which is also extremely low for him, making just four and getting to the line for just one attempt.
“Yeah, you feel it,” he said of the extra attention he is getting these days. “You find ways to beat it. Maybe we get stops and get out in transition and get easy points that way, but every night is different but at the same time, it’s the same because you know what to expect.”
It was just the second win by the Bucks against Toronto in the past 14 games and snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Raptors.
Lost in another disappointing setback was what started out to be a redemption game for Jonas Valanciunas, who came out of the gate hard with nine points and five rebounds in the first quarter alone.
But then Valanciunas once again became the forgotten man, getting just one more shot attempt on the night, which he made to finish a perfect 5-for-5 from the field. He finished the night with 21 minutes, 13 points and seven rebounds.
mganter@postmedia.com
