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Toronto Raptors point man Kyle Lowry explained how it is that his team managed to flip the script on the Milwaukee Bucks after going down 0-2 in the series.
The second seed in the East seemingly hit the download button after losing the first two games, making all the right plays down the stretch to keep the winningest team in this regular season contained.
“Play f***ing hard, send bodies, then rotate,” Lowry explained, according to ESPN's Kevin Arnovitz. “It's not science. It's understanding the rotations, who's going, where they're going and knowing who's going to help and get out. It's tough to do, but you have to do it in this situation.”
The Raptors have picked up their intensity, but they're also a lot more alert — containing drives with double teams, traps and darting away at Milwaukee's best shooters.
In the final 20 minutes of play, the Bucks generated only three uncontested shots in a half court set — the first being an alley-oop throwdown by Antetokounmpo and a couple of pull-up jumpers from Eric Bledsoe, who has rebounded from a ghastly series shooting the ball. The first play is near-unstoppable, the next two tolerable, given Bledsoe had shot 1-of-16 on wide-open shots this series.
“The rotation comes from wherever,” said Kyle Lowry. “We talk and communicate — ‘Go, go, go.' Marc will say, ‘K-Low, you go.' Kawhi, Danny, Freddie. Everyone is talking. You hear the communication, you hear the professionalism, you hear everyone with an understanding of what's the next move, who's going where, who's taking responsibility.”
While the Raptors dropped a game-high 18 3-pointers on Thursday, it was their defensive lockdown that ultimately won them the game. Nothing easy, nothing free — a true reminder of the high stakes of playoff basketball and what it takes to reach the NBA Finals.
