Raptors Snap Skid as Immanuel Quickley's Brilliance Upsets Bucks

The Toronto Raptors got back in the win column Friday night with a shocking victory over the scuffling Milwaukee Bucks

Author:
Aaron Rose
Apr 06, 2024

In this story:

Toronto Raptors

Milwaukee Bucks

Immanuel Quickley

The streak is over.

This was the bounce-back performance the Toronto Raptors had been hoping for. They’d lost 15 straight coming into Friday night and looked every bit that bad of late. A historic 48-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night marked a new low for the organization.

But that’s all over now.

A stunning 117-111 victory over a scuffling Milwaukee Bucks team playing without Giannis Antetokounmpo has Toronto mercifully back in the win column following 15 straight losses.

It was Immanuel Quickley who played hero for the Raptors, icing the game at the free throw line after an errant three-pointer from Khris Middleton allowed Toronto to avoid disaster.

Quickley was brilliant all night for the Raptors. He kept the offense ticking, masterfully working to find Gary Trent Jr. with pin-point kick-out passes one after another. The technical foul he drew in the fourth from Bobby Portis stuck Toronto to a three-point lead with a minute to go and the Raptors never looked back.

The Bucks just simply aren’t the team they’ve looked to be in years past.

The addition of Damian Lillard has certainly provided them with offensive firepower, but their defense has floundered this season and Toronto exposed that. Lillard’s 36-point performance came to an end with a stop from Ochai Agbaji in the final minutes that led to Lillard taking an ill-advised foul on the rebound, his sixth of the night.

Gary Trent Jr. led the way for Toronto with 31 points and caught fire in the second quarter, nailing a driving floater as Toronto began to claw into Milwaukee’s double-digit lead. He picked off an errant pass from Lillard and converted that into a dunk at the other end before his second of two three-pointers in the quarter gave the Raptors a five-point lead.

It was the kind of run Toronto needed from its starters after a lackluster showing from the second unit for the Raptors. Jordan Nwora, Javon Freeman-Liberty, and Jalen McDaniels couldn’t get anything going in their limited minutes.

Trent’s 15-point second quarter allowed the Raptors to head into the break with their first halftime lead since March 13.

Normally this is when the Raptors would have folded over the last month.

They’d played a relatively impressive first half against the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this week only to disappear in the second half.

This time, though, Toronto came out with the kind of intensity that’s been so lacking over the past month. RJ Barrett nailed a driving layup to grow the lead before Immanuel Quickley got into his bag of tricks, nailing a pull-up three to put the Raptors up 10.

Gradey Dick was the lone standout for Toronto off the bench, sliding back into more of a secondary role with the Raptors suddenly relatively healthy again. He converted an impressive up-and-under layup in the third quarter as the Raptors eked ahead by a dozen.

Lillard tried to keep Milwaukee going and used the pick-and-roll to toy with Agbaji and the Raptors early. He lulled Quickley into fouling him on a three and then shook loose of McDaniels to nail a three as the Bucks whittled Toronto’s lead down to just three late in the third.

But Quickley wouldn’t go away late nailing 14 of 15 shots from the free throw line and finishing the night one assist shy of a triple-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds. His lone slip-up was a strange unforced eight-second violation bringing the ball up the court in the middle of the fourth quarter.