Bucks Defeat Raptors 99-85: Positives and Negatives

Positives:

Ryan Rollins! Ryan Rollins started his first game for the Bucks after signing a 2 way contract, and stepped up big time. He came out aggressive in the first quarter, and ended the night hitting 4 out of his 7 threes. To go along with this, Rollins had 5 (!) steals, 5 rebounds and 3 assists before exiting due to a shoulder injury. Rollins seems to have a prominent rotation spot locked up for Milwaukee, and it is very well deserved.

Shot Selection: The Bucks shot 56 threes tonight, a long way from the 32 they shot against the Celtics. The Bucks, through their first 10 games, were running a non-modern offense. Giannis and Bobby Portis were getting ample post-up opportunities, and these post-ups for the most part were ending in a contested mid range shot. There was an emphasis on either shooting threes or layups tonight, which hopefully Milwaukee can carry into the rest of the season. Although they only scored 99 points, the process was much better than in recent games.

Forcing Turnovers: The Bucks forced 22 turnovers tonight, 16 of those being live ball opportunities in transition off steals. Everybody was extremely active in passing lanes tonight, and it created some great opportunities in transition, which is huge when the half court offense was struggling like it was without Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton.

Negatives:

Bruno Fernando Dunks on Giannis: Uh, yeah. Not much to say here, Giannis got absolutely yammed on by Bruno Fernando. Shoutout Bruno Fernando man, he was one of the lone bright spots for Toronto tonight.

What’s Next? The Bucks battle the Pistons Wednesday night at 7PM.