Raptors and Bucks fans went through all the emotions on Wednesday night as they watched a basketball purge all but turn into a moment in history. Finished and at the bottom of the hole 3 minutes from the end of the match, the soldiers of Toronto almost made the comeback of the year in the NBA.
You know a match is crazy when everyone starts writing all caps.
And that night, in Toronto, everyone wrote in capital letters, from Ontario to Wisconsin via the 5 continents.
However, what basketball crap the Raptors offered us over 45 minutes of the game. Incapable in attack, weighed down by a Pascal Siakam in concern for faults, the men of Nick Nurse were painful to watch. We were even in total ease preparing to write a paper to demolish this team, unable to produce a good game in front of its public for 48 minutes, one month before the trade deadline.
The first period was to be thrown in the trash, let’s not beat around the bush.
Between the bricks of the Raptors (28 of the first 30 missed shots!) and the clumsiness of the Bucks (39 points in total), this first half was a repellent to the sport of basketball.
But that’s also the magic of the NBA.
A match can be folded in 45 minutes, before an earthquake takes place at the buzzer.
???????????????????? pic.twitter.com/pVlnuV1kN7
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) January 5, 2023
Too late, and too bad because it was huge. pic.twitter.com/Wb6zdPvdnH
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) January 5, 2023
Luka Doncic and the Mavs had done it to us recently against the Knicks, we almost got an equally incredible finish.
Led by 20 points with 3 minutes remaining, the Raptors will make an extraordinary comeback.
At the center of the maneuver? Scottie Barnes, well supported by Gary Trent Jr, who will finally unlock his immense talent for excessive scoring. Penetration on penetration, play in force and touchdown, the reigning rookie of the year will take over and almost bring down the Bucks on this end of the meeting without upside down. And while Mike Budenholzer will rest his main forces to let Grayson Allen do anything, it’s GTJ who will send everyone to overtime.
Scene of madness at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the favorite phrase of NBA fans has fallen.
“I had left the match there was +20 and 3 minutes to play, what the fuck?!“
Unfortunately for the Raptors and their supporters, the extension will not change anything. It will also perhaps only accentuate the ills of the Canadians, with a heroic comeback sent to the trash in overtime. A feat of two men who will have hidden the misery a little, but for how long?
Because if the end result is an overtime loss to the Bucks, the reality on the ground is that Toronto is 13 losses in the last 18 games, and it will take more than an alignment of the planets to change that. However, thanks for the show. We got married.