Bucks' Lillard reminds Raptors of impact elite superstars can have

TORONTO — Should the Toronto Raptors have traded for Damian Lillard? Could they have?

As is often the case with these things, the full facts don’t always come out, or if they do, it’s only after a considerable amount of time passes.

The best understanding I have: the Raptors were prepared to go all in and give the Portland Trail Blazers all the draft capital they could but wouldn’t part with any of their existing core, and Portland moved on.

Ultimately, the former Trail Blazers icon was traded to Milwaukee — to a team with Giannis Antetokounmpo — with an eye on winning another title for the Bucks.

Whether that works out is an open question. The Bucks arrived in Toronto after a meh start and facing a lot of questions about their suddenly porous defence — traditionally among the league’s best, it ranked 24th heading into Wednesday’s game — and about the on-court fit between its two stars, which has been uneven so far. Boston and Philadelphia look like the best teams in the East at this stage.

But Lillard reminded the Raptors that it’s always nice to have a superstar who can run your team.

With Antetokounmpo sitting out with a calf strain, Lillard was put in a position where he’s always done his best work: with the ball in his hands and free reign to figure the rest out.

The Raptors proved a riddle that was too easy to solve on Wednesday. Milwaukee (7-4) blew the Raptors (5-6) out early and kept them at arms-length distance down the stretch of a 128-112 win that avenged Toronto’s blowout win over Milwaukee four games into the season.

Lillard was magical, as he finished with 37 points and 13 assists in 31 minutes. He had the game on a string.

“The situation was right for it,” he said later. “With Giannis not playing, I knew I would have more responsibility, I knew I would have to be more aggressive and kind of assert myself from a playmaking and scoring standpoint.”

Malik Beasley had 30 for Milwaukee, a good chunk of them thanks to wide-open three-point looks set up by Lillard’s dribble penetration. Milwaukee shot 20-of-39 from three, few of them contested.

The Raptors were led by Scottie Barnes, who broke out of a brief shooting slump to score 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting while connecting on all three of his three-point attempts. Barnes added nine rebounds and seven assists and was the Raptors’ lone bright spot. He played a good portion of the second half as the Raptors point guard and was effective playing off high screens and attacking the paint from there. Performances like that give the Raptors hope that they have a star in the making. The question is, can Barnes arrive fully formed soon enough?

And will there be enough help on hand when he does? Barnes was the only Raptors player with more than 13 points. Rookie Gradey Dick made his first NBA start and looked the part, as he finished with 11 points on 2-of-10 shooting. He did make all six of his free throws. He found out he was staring at noon and called his family to alert them. It won’t be his last, but the 19-year-old is just that — a teenager. It will take time. The Raptors could use the scoring and shooting he should be able to provide — at least eventually. Toronto shot just 9-of-33 from deep, many of the misses on wide-open looks.

In contrast, Lillard made life easy for the Bucks. Needless to say, the Raptors don’t have that single superstar — let alone two, as the Bucks do. They have a couple of borderline-elite players in Pascal Siakam and Barnes, a superb role player in O.G Anunoby and get pretty ordinary after that. With Anunoby out with a cut on his finger and Gary Trent Jr. — their leading scorer off the bench — out with plantar fasciitis, the choice gets slimmer still. Then there are nights like Wednesday when — for whatever reason — Siakam can’t assert himself. He finished with 11 points on nine shots, which is not enough production from the Raptors' only all-star.

It’s why anytime a sexy name hits the trade market — the latest is Chicago Bulls bucket-getter Zach LaVine — it is tempting to wonder if the Raptors should make a pitch.

Typically, the Raptors can hold their own defensively — though Anunoby is a giant piece of that puzzle and it showed in the first half, particularly. He’s missed two games and in each case the Raptors' defensive effort and execution went missing to start the game. It was especially glaring against the Bucks, who were without Antetokounmpo’s 29.5 points a game but still scored at will, thanks to Lillard.

“He is an incredible player, but I think we were a little slow to react,” said Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl. “Personally, I was slow to react to what he was trying to do out there. He was coming off pick-and-rolls and he was getting to the rim. ... I have to do a better job of reacting to that and being able to read that and maybe cover some ground there.”

But the Raptors offence was just as much of an issue, and as Lillard was having his way on the court, it was hard not to notice how — in contrast — running a dynamic, efficient, and varied offence gets harder without the defence-bending gravity that a single star generates.

Even as Lillard was shredding the Raptors at will, Toronto’s inability to generate consistent offence meant it had no chance of keeping up. Threes that bounce harmlessly off the iron, passes to nowhere — 12 first-half turnovers that turned into 18 Bucks points — and not much scoring outside of what either Barnes or Siakam can generate on their own.

On Wednesday, it was Barnes’ turn to have a big night pounding the defence. Through 11 games, there have been precious few moments when each of Siakam and Barnes have scored in bunches on the same night. But outside of that, there wasn’t much going on.

But it’s not like Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic is about to shift course mid-stream.

“What is the alternative to it? There is no alternative,” he said in reference to his intention to have the Raptors generate equal-opportunity offence through superior ball movement and cutting. “We've got to be the team that is going to move the ball. We're building not just for one game or a stretch of games. We're building for the future. We're building our habits that [are] going to last with this team and be with this group for many years to come. I never expected it was going to be easy. I never expected to be on the road without any bumps. I'm very, very well aware of it and prepared for it. We'll keep preaching the same thing. We're going to keep moving the ball. We're going to keep cutting. We're going to continue playing for each other. We're going to continue taking open shots. And we're working a lot to improve our shooting and to knock down those shots. So, I think it's going to be something that we continue to do.”

The first quarter was an example of why taking the long view might be wise because, in the short term, things didn’t go very well. After a nice start by Toronto — three baskets on three assists — the offence stalled and the Bucks went on a 14-0 run that set the tone.

Lillard seemed to get anywhere he wanted on the floor, either scoring himself or drawing help defenders and setting up teammates for layups or open threes. The Raptors offence did generate some good looks, but Malachi Flynn — who has been shooting 47 per cent from three over his past five games — missed three constitutive open chances from distance. Dennis Schroder missed one too, also wide open.

Meanwhile, Lillard had 14 points and five assists at the end of the first quarter and Milwaukee led by 15. He played just over six minutes in the second quarter but that was enough time to cause more havoc, as he added 10 points and three more assists. He got to the free-throw line six times. Six of his assists were to open teammates for threes, such as his one-handed shovel pass to Beasley for a three that just beat the halftime horn and put the Bucks up 70-43. At that stage, Lillard had scored or assisted on 46 Bucks points.

The Raptors came back from down 23 points in the third quarter against the Wizards on Monday and were down 19 in the fourth quarter when they pulled out a win against San Antonio last Sunday. But Lillard made sure the Bucks kept the gas pedal down. He added 13 points and four assists in the third quarter and pushed the Bucks’ lead to 33 points with another assist on a Beasley three with five minutes left in the frame.

Toronto did mount a 13-2 run in the final 3:45 of the third that gave it the smallest window of hope. The Raptors trimmed Milwaukee’s lead all the way down to 13 while Lillard was on the bench but timely threes from Bobby Portis, Brook Lopez and Cameron Payne helped push the Bucks’ lead back to 20 with four minutes to go and the game was mainly decided at that point.

Having a superstar in the NBA guarantees nothing. The Bucks pairing of Lillard and Antetokounmpo means the expectations of a title are high, but it doesn’t make them a favourite.

Not having a superstar only guarantees the Raptors won’t have many easy nights.