RJ Barrett and Brandon Ingram are forming a dynamic duo for the Toronto Raptors, who will look for more heroics from the pair when they play host to the Milwaukee Bucks for the second time in 12 days on Tuesday.
The Bucks have a hero of their own, two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who arrives in Canada after Milwaukee celebrated his 16-foot buzzer-beater on Monday night.
The Raptors lost their home opener 122-116 to the Bucks on Oct. 24. Milwaukee returns for Toronto’s fourth home game of the season after defeating the Indiana Pacers 117-115 on Monday in Indianapolis thanks to Antetokounmpo, who logged 33 points and 13 rebounds.
Toronto put together back-to-back wins for the first time this season after taking a 117-104 home decision over the depleted Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday.
Barrett led the Raptors with a season-best 27 points and Brandon Ingram scored 26. Toronto acquired Ingram in a February trade with the New Orleans Pelicans, but he didn’t play for his new team last season due to an ankle injury.
“I said it, with B.I. coming, shots are a lot easier for me,” Barrett said. “There’s another threat out there that the team has to worry about. I think we’re doing a good job of everybody sharing the ball, being in the flow.”
Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic noted that Barrett is shooting better this season from 3-point range.
“(Barrett) put in a lot of work in this summer,” Rajakovic said. “He’s not forcing anything that’s coming on the dribble or (trying) some tough shots. His teammates are doing a really good job. He has such a good feel to get in the right spot of the court, to get in the open window, and his teammates are doing a really good job of moving the ball and finding him open, so that’s great.”
There is no player doing more for the Raptors than Scottie Barnes. He had 19 points, a season-high 12 rebounds, eight assists and a season-best five blocked shots on Sunday.
Toronto rookie Collin Murray-Boyles added 15 points and a season-high nine rebounds to make up for some of the defense lost by the absence of center Jakob Poeltl, who missed his third straight game because of back tightness.
“I know the reason I’m here, play defense and do the little things,” Murray-Boyles said. “So I’m just trying to do that to the best of my ability, never shying away from who I am or who I was.”
Poeltl took part in practice on Monday and was listed as questionable for the Tuesday contest.
The Bucks will need to improve on the 18 turnovers they committed on Monday that led to 13 Indiana points. They needed Antetokounmpo to come through with the big fadeaway shot after Indiana tied the game with 14.6 seconds to play in a physical matchup.
“He bailed us out for sure,” Kyle Kuzma, who scored 15 points for Milwaukee, said of Antetokounmpo. “That was a hell of a shot. The way we played most of that game and down the stretch we could have lost for sure. Just for execution, we had turnovers, messed up a couple of times in zone. That’s what good teams do, you find ugly wins so you take them and that was a huge, huge shot by him. It really saved us.”
Antetokounmpo said, “You can live with it if you miss, you can’t live with it if you don’t shoot it. I can go to sleep if I take the shot, miss the shot, come in the locker room and look at the guys and say, ‘My bad, I’m going to make the next one.’ If you don’t shoot it, it kind of hurts.”
