Milwaukee Bucks hosted the Toronto Raptors on Saturday afternoon at their BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee. It was the Game 4 of this Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. Milwaukee beat the Raptors on Thursday night and held a 2-1 series lead coming into Saturday's matchup.
The Bucks dominated Toronto in their previous game especially on the defensive end as they held them to just 77 points. Toronto finished the regular as the number three seed in the East and holds a home-court advantage in this series. With Game 5 on their home floor in Canada, they wanted to tie the series on Saturday.
Toronto's defense wins them Game 4
It was a tough, defensive-minded game on Saturday afternoon, with 19,000 fans at Bradley Center supporting the Bucks. Teams went back and forth in the first quarter and the score was tied at 19 a piece after the first 12 minutes of the game. The Bucks shot just 35 percent in the first quarter while Toronto shot 40 percent.
Khris Middleton led the Bucks with seven points while DeRozan scored six points for Toronto in that first quarter. It was a close game also in the second quarter with three lead changes and seven ties. At halftime, the score was tied 41-41. The Raptors started to pull away in the third quarter. They outscored Milwaukee 23-17 and held them to just 30 percent shooting in the third quarter.
Toronto held a 64-58 lead going into the fourth quarter. They played great defense in the final period of the game as they allowed only 18 points to the Bucks and forced them into seven turnovers in that period. Final score was 87-76 for the Raptors. They held Milwaukee to 37% shooting from the field and forced them to commit 20 turnovers.
DeRozan's big game
Toronto's All-Star DeMar DeRozan led all scorers on Saturday. After scoring just eight points in Game 3, he finished with 33 points in Game 4. DeRozan also added nine rebounds and five assists. He was 12 of 22 from the field after missing all eight of his attempts in Game 3. His backcourt partner Kyle Lowry scored 18 points and added four rebounds and four assists.
Norman Powell received his first start of the postseason and contributed with 12 points and four assists.
For the Bucks, it was Tony Snell who led the way in scoring. He finished with 19 points including five 3-pointers, both playoff career highs. Snell also added four rebounds as well. Greg Monroe helped with 14 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
The series is now tied at 2-2 with Game 5 scheduled at the Air Canada Centre on Monday.
