The Milwaukee Bucks will look for a little extra motivation to get their season back on track when they host the Toronto Raptors in NBA Cup action on Friday night.
The Bucks lost their fourth straight game, 109-102 to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday — a game the Celtics led by as many as 22 points before Milwaukee battled back in the second half. The Bucks briefly took the lead in the fourth quarter but couldn’t hold on, even as Boston rested Jayson Tatum.
“A lot of growth, a lot of progress here and we’ll figure out how to close out a game, but this was awesome by our group,” head coach Taylor Jenkins defended the performance. “Obviously got to continue to not dig ourselves holes… but overall our guys’ resilience was the biggest takeaway from this game.”
At 1-7, the new-look Bucks are off to their worst eight-game start since the 1993-94 season. Rebounding remains a concern after Milwaukee surrendered 19 offensive boards to Boston. The Bucks now face a Toronto team tied for the league lead with 14.8 offensive rebounds per game.
“Offensive rebounding, I think, was a little bit of what hurt us in that fourth quarter. But again, you know, we’re just going to continue to work and get better, and we got another one in two days, so excited for that one,” said small forward Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Milwaukee won the second edition of NBA Cup in 2024 but were eliminated last year in the competition’s group stage.
The Raptors are coming off a 128-109 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday — their third loss in four. Toronto led 67-64 at halftime before being outscored 41-15 in a disastrous third quarter.
“We started good today, which was a positive,” said R.J. Barrett, who led the team with 22 points. “I think we won every quarter except the third, but then obviously the third was horrible… we got to figure out how to eliminate those and just get back to what we’re doing.”
The Raptors are 2-4 since Kawhi Leonard was sidelined by left knee swelling on Oct. 25. Toronto also has been dealing with injuries to center Jakob Poeltl, who returned Wednesday after missing two games with a shoulder issue.
Poeltl came off the bench in his return Wednesday, but Toronto struggled to contain Nikola Jokic, who recorded 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. The pressure will be on the $104 million man to bring his defensive work up to speed.
“They scored 76 points in the paint and that’s unacceptable,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said after the game. “We got to be much better defensively there.”
Toronto lost its opening NBA Cup game 121-114 to Orlando on Oct. 30. The Raptors have won the last three encounters against Milwaukee.
Kam Jones (ankle) may remain sidelined for the Bucks. The Raptors signed Kevin McCullar Jr. to a two-way contract on Thursday, and he could make his team debut.
