Here are 10 takeaways from the Toronto Raptors’ 108-97 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

One — Close: The Raptors confirmed that they can still compete with the Bucks, but that it will be an uphill battle. The loss of Kawhi Leonard, who averaged 30 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals is staggering but it is not necessarily fatal. The Raptors remain formidable, especially defensively, but what little margin for error that existed last year is now gone. The Raptors made too many mistakes — especially at the end of the second quarter and at the start of the third — that they simply cannot afford against a Bucks team that is seriously challenging for 70 wins.

Two — Encouraging: The Raptors can always take away the No. 1 option on offense, and Giannis Antetokounmpo is no exception. Last year, it was Leonard that drew the main defensive assignment, but his on-ball defense can be replicated in large degree by OG Anunoby and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who are also strong enough to keep Antetokounmpo from barrelling to the basket. What’s also encouraging is that the infrastructure is still there in terms of help defense. The formula remains the same: when Antetokounmpo is at the top of the floor, the Raptors play him single coverage with help arriving at the basket, and a hard double team comes when he sets up in the post to force the kickout.

Three — Concern: The problem for the Raptors is on offense. The Bucks are the league’s best defense by every metric because they sticks to strict principles. One, the bigs always drop back to protect the basket, while their lanky guards fight to challenge over the top. Two, they are disciplined in transition and only bleed on the rare live-ball turnover from their perimeter players. Three, they stay at home and rarely allow corner three-point attempts. The one weakness in their defense is at the top of the floor, where a wing can find daylight off a solid screen, but the Raptors couldn’t capitalize. Fred VanVleet and Kyle Lowry were miserable on pull-up jumpers, while Serge Ibaka lost his confidence on catch-and-shoot jumpers. Those shots generally are the most inefficient looks in the league, but that’s what it takes to beat the Bucks.

Four — Hesitant: The Raptors came in with a plan to overwhelm the Bucks at the three-point line, and although 52 attempts seems absurd, they did reasonably well with 18 makes. Where the problem arose was how the Raptors got to their shots. The offense runs best when it’s inside then out — Lowry and VanVleet get downhill towards the rim, force the defense to rotate, and that’s when openings come. However, because the Bucks were so formidable on the inside, there wasn’t even a wholehearted attempt to get drives inside. Too many possessions boiled down to just chucking up rushed jumpers, and that’s not a sustainable way to beat the Bucks. There needs to be a better balance in how the offense operates.

Five — Useful: The bench was surprisingly decent against the Bucks, whereas the starters failed miserably. The second unit played with more energy, were quicker to swarm the ball, and thus they created fast-break chances. Hollis-Jefferson refused to surrender an inch to Antetokounmpo, Terence Davis shook off a sloppy start and took on all challengers in the fourth, Chris Boucher recorded a handful of sensational hustle plays, while Matt Thomas briefly stole the show with three triples in quick succession to establish an early lead. There’s even a case to be made that Nick Nurse should have rode the bench even longer, which is surprising given that none of the aforementioned players are guaranteed minutes in a potential playoff series against the Bucks.

DON'T JUMP WITH THE OG pic.twitter.com/do4sh7QXMT — Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) February 26, 2020

Six — Decent: There’s always the temptation to want more from Pascal Siakam, but under the circumstances, he fared reasonably well. There needs to be more of a concerted effort to have Siakam involved on every possession, and fault falls on both sides for that, but the Bucks are an extremely tough matchup for a player of his skillset. He’s at his best when he’s going to the basket, but Siakam doesn’t have a single physical advantage in his matchup against a bigger and stronger Antetokounmpo. Toss in the added hurdle of a second help defender in the form of a 7-foot Lopez twin, and it’s just a situation where Siakam will need to play smart. For the most part, his improvements did translate, as Siakam hit five threes and recorded three assists. Expecting him to be Leonard in this matchup, however, is just silly. The rest of the team needs to step up around Siakam to provide more secondary scoring.

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