Thursday night's Toronto Raptors versus Milwaukee Bucks game was a "must-win" for the home team and a "knockout game" for the visitors. Thanks to a big night from guard DeMar DeRozan and a collapse in the final seconds by the Bucks, the Raptors held on for a three-point victory in Milwaukee. The win moves Toronto on to the next round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs. Here's a look at how they captured this big victory on Thursday evening.
DeRozan leads Toronto to win
DeMar DeRozan was the man for the Toronto Raptors in tonight's win. He finished with 32 points on 12-for-24 shooting to lead all Toronto players.
The next-closest was teammate Kyle Lowry with 13 points. After that, no other Raptors player scored in double-digits, but Serge Ibaka pulled down 11 boards to help Toronto win the rebounding battle.
On the other side, Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with a game-high 34 points for the Milwaukee Bucks. "The Greek Freak" had nine rebounds, three assists, two steals, and two blocks to fill up his stat line. He had help from teammate Khris Middleton who scored 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting including 3-of-5 made three-pointers. Matthew Dellavedova came off the bench to provide an additional 12 points in the losing effort.
For tonight's game, neither team lit it up exactly when it came to making shots.
The Raptors were 32-of-70, good for 45.7 percent shooting from the floor while the Bucks went 32-of-76 giving them a 42.1 percent field goal rate. One area that Milwaukee hurt themselves in was free throw shooting as the team only hit 64 percent of their shots, missing 10 points they could have used to take a late lead.
What's up next?
The Milwaukee Bucks have now been officially eliminated from the 2017 NBA Playoffs. It was a successful season for this squad as they made a return to the postseason and had plenty to build upon with their future stars. That includes "Greek Freak" who could become the next big superstar in the league, as well as young stars such as Jabari Parker and Malcolm Brogdon.
The team may be able to snag another future star in this June's NBA draft.
The Toronto Raptors will move on to the second round of the playoff bracket. They'll take on the reigning NBA Champions, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in a rematch of last postseason's Eastern Conference Finals. The Cavs defeated their first round opponents, the Indiana Pacers, in a four-game sweep to set up the series.