After taking advantage of most of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Toronto Raptors fell 108-100 to the Milwaukee Bucks in what was a tough setback to start the race for a ticket to the NBA Finals.
Brook Lopez scored 29 points, surpassing the 25 he scored in the entire series that Milwaukee played against the Boston Celtics, and Toronto went 0-15 on field goals excluding Kyle Lowry in the fourth quarter, which buried the chances of Raptors victory and elevated the locals to a vital victory to continue their search for their first series for the league title since 1974.
This defeat was extremely disappointing for the Canadian team, as its two top stars, Kawhi Leonard (31-9-2) and Kay Lowry (30 points) finally joined to command their squad in the scorers table, but of any way was not enough to defeat the team with the best record in the regular season.
The key to the meeting this Friday is to maintain a constant rhythm. Both for Raptors, who were outscored 32-17 in the fourth quarter and let go the advantage of seven points they had at the start, as for Bucks, who discovered that the pick & roll with Lopez and Giannis worked late in the game.
For Game 2 of the Eastern finals there are two data that could represent a key triumph for Milwaukee to play in the series for the Larry O’Brien trophy for the third time or for Toronto to do so for the first time: the Bucks had the second best Brand playing at home this year and are the team that most times covered the bet line. In the second duel of their series, the Bucks are favored by 6.5 units and have the advantage that they have faced Toronto five times this year and have only suffered a setback, so it is very likely that they learn from the mistakes made. in the clash on Wednesday and add another triumph that brings them closer to the NBA Finals.