The picture is an AI-generated illustration, not a photograph from the match
Alijah Martin scored a career-high 27 points and RJ Barrett added 27 as the short-handed Toronto Raptors defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 121-107 in an NBA Cup game Friday night at Fiserv Forum, outscoring their hosts by 23 after the break.
Six of seven from the arc
Twenty-seven points was more than Martin had scored in his entire season until Friday: 23 points across seven games before this one.
Toronto's first lead of the game arrived on Martin's three-pointer that made it 71-69 with 5:41 left in the third quarter.
Jamal Shead set a career high with 16 assists alongside 10 points and a plus-23, and Collin Murray-Boyles added 19 points, seven rebounds and four steals.
In the wider picture, Martin is a 2025 second-round pick out of Florida who had entered Friday having made 6 of 27 three-point attempts across his career to that point.
Poeltl did the unglamorous version of the same job: 19 points on nine of 14, 11 rebounds with six offensive, three steals and a block.
Herro's 23 and 10, Turner's silent night
Tyler Herro finished with 23 points and 10 assists but was 1 of 5 from three until the attempt that put Milwaukee back in front 22 seconds after Martin's three had given Toronto their first lead.
Milwaukee's 79-73 was the last time it led. A nine-point answer followed, closed by Graves' three-point play, and the Bucks never finished a sequence in front again.
Rookie Brayden Burries set career highs with 21 points and 11 rebounds, five of them offensive, and Myles Turner scored no points in 24 minutes on 0 of 7 from the floor.
In the wider picture, the Bucks are 1-8, the slowest start in the franchise's history since the 1993-94 team that lost 10 of its first 11 games and went on to finish 20-62.
Toronto's defence produced 12 steals and 27 points off Milwaukee's 21 turnovers, and the Raptors converted 24 of 31 free throws in the game.
One and one in the Cup, five and four overall
Toronto moved to 1-1 in NBA Cup group play and 5-4 overall; Milwaukee fell to 0-1 in the Cup and 1-8 in the league, part of an East Group A that also holds Detroit, Orlando and Brooklyn.
The Raptors were playing without a seven-time all-NBA selection in Leonard, a two-time All-Star in Barnes and their starting guard Quickley, with Leonard missing a seventh consecutive game.
RJ Barrett carried the other half of the scoring with 27 points on nine of 21 and nine of 11 from the line, plus seven rebounds and five assists in 37 minutes.
In the wider picture, four players in street clothes and still 28 assists: this is what a rotation built on ball movement looks like when the primary options are missing. Toronto finished with 44 made shots in 93 attempts.
Beyond that, Up next: the Raptors host the Grizzlies on Monday night, and the Bucks stay home for a Sunday game against the Boston Celtics.
Editor's take: Toronto won this with 12 steals and a second half of 70 points while missing three of its best players. The ceiling argument writes itself.
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