Jack and Bosh avoided the season sweep Friday night.(AP Photo)
Jarrett Jack and Marco Belinelli led the Toronto Raptors to victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night after being down double digits for a good chunk of the game.
Toronto was down nine points at halftime and it looked like Milwaukee would grab a season sweep of the Raptors.
But then the Raptors switched to a 2-3 zone in the second half of the game that completely shut down the Bucks' offense. The Raptors went on to win the game, 101-96.
"Their zone took us out of our rhythm offensively," said Bucks center Andrew Bogut. "We got five or six stops in a row but we couldn't score."
Saying that the Bucks couldn't score was an understatement, as Milwaukee scored just 39 points in the second half, including just 3 of 15 threes, and 5 of 26 threes overall.
"We missed so many open looks," Carlos Delfino, who made just 1 of 8 threes, said. "This is the first time we've really faced a zone and it's something that surprised us. We have so many shooters."
Despite the poor shooting, the Bucks were in position to win the game before a 13-0 Toronto run late in the 4th quarter that gave them a seven point lead.
Jack scored 13 of his 27 points in the 4th, and made 11-12 from the charity stripe in the contest. Toronto as a team shot 18 more free throws than the Bucks (42-24), getting to the line at will in the final quarter.
"We really had to dig down deep to get ourselves back into the ballgame and we just kept fighting, man." Jack said. "Kept fighting and plugging away and we were able to attain the lead and pull it out in the end."
Marco Belinelli provided a big spark off of Toronto's bench, scoring 16 points with 5 rebounds in 25 minutes. Chris Bosh, after scoring a career-high 44 points in Wednesday's game against the Bucks, was held to just 17 points and 7 rebounds, but made two key free throws late in the 4th that helped seal the win for Toronto (22-22).
Luke Ridnour scored 27 points in the game on 9-13 shooting, including 3 of the Bucks' 5 threes. He handed out 4 assists and did all his damage in just under 24 minutes.
Andrew Bogut had 22 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks, but scored just 5 of those points in the second half. Brandon Jennings continues to put up terrible shooting numbers, making just 5-15 shots for 14 points. He had 3 steals, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists in the loss. Carlos Delfino, who had been really hot lately, made just 4-16 shots on his way to 9 points and 11 rebounds in 43 minutes. In his second game as a Buck, Jerry Stackhouse had 8 points but committed 5 turnovers.
Center Andrea Bargnani missed the game for the Raptors after complaining of back soreness.
Ersan Ilyasova came off the Bucks bench again, playing 22 minutes and scoring 5 points. While that's nothing special, the team was +10 while he was on the court and is +35 with him on the court for the season, a good number. To give you a sense of how that rates among other Bucks players, the team is +4 with Bogut on the court, -23 with Jennings and -21 with Delfino. Good things seem to happen when Ilyasova is playing.
The Bucks dropped to 17-24 with the loss and are now officially halfway done with the 2009-10 season. They sit two games behind the Bulls for the 8th seed in the East. If the team wants to sniff the playoffs this season, they've got to start winning road games, as their current 5-17 mark is among the worst in the NBA.
The Bucks will return to action on Saturday night at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Gametime is 7:30pm at the Bradley Center and can be seen on FSN Wisconsin HD.
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Comments
I watched the game and I would say luck had to do with the win more than the desire of revenge.
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