When the season started, everyone knew the Eastern Conference would have a new king.
LeBron James left Cleveland, having taken his talents to Los Angeles.
And even Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo wasn’t sure who would take his place.
“I didn’t know we were going to be in the Eastern Conference finals or not,” Antetokounmpo said. “I just know that he’s a top player that we always had problems against him and the Cavs. Now he’s not playing for the Cavs, so it’s going to be a little bit easier. I didn’t see it as an opening. But when you look back and see how everything went, it’s definitely an opening not having LeBron in the East.”
The Bucks are three wins away from taking full advantage of that opening, and becoming the team that replaces James after his eight consecutive seasons going to the NBA Finals as a representative of the Eastern Conference. Game 2 of the East final is Friday night in Milwaukee, where the Bucks will aim to take a 2-0 series lead over the Toronto Raptors.
“We’re happy,” Antetokounmpo said. “But the job is not done. We’ve got to protect our home. We’ve got to be able to get Game 2.”
Toronto got swept out of the 2017 and 2018 playoffs by James and the Cavs. Now they’re already facing a 1-0 deficit against Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, after dropping Game 1 despite leading for 37 of the game’s 48 minutes.
“Sometimes, we just missed some shots,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry shrugged.
The way the Raptors see it, the adjustment to make finals might not be an adjustment at all. They liked most everything but the outcome of Game 1 — a 108-100 Bucks win – and figure that if they play the same Friday, they’ll have another chance at stealing away home-court advantage.
“This team has handled downs pretty well and ups pretty well, and that’s been one of our focuses since day one of training camp,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “So let’s hope we can keep that going a little bit.”
The Bucks won a game where they shot just under 40 percent and were 11 of 44 from 3-point range. They made up for that on the defensive end and on the backboards — they held every Raptor not named Lowry or Kawhi Leonard to 1 for 23 shooting after halftime, and outrebounded Toronto 60-46.
Still, Toronto insists it is not worried about the offense.
“Everything starts on the defensive end,” Raptors forward Serge Ibaka said.
