Toronto Raptors Are ‘For Real’ & Milwaukee Bucks Aren’t Says Ric Bucher

Getty Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks drives against Semi Ojeleye #37 of the Boston Celtics during the first quarter of Game Seven in Round One of the 2018 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden on April 28, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Currently sitting at 56-23, the Toronto Raptors are currently sitting in second place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. Having won five straight, the Raptors are led by head coach, Nick Nurse, and their juggernauts in NBA All Star’s Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry, as well as their big man, Marc Gasol.

Comparatively, the Milwaukee Bucks are also making noise in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

Guided by their head coach, Mike Budenholzer, the Bucks have gone 7-3 in their last ten games. The team is led by the core of NBA All Star’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kris Middleton and big man, Brook Lopez. Going into tonight’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, the Bucks are currently sitting in first place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

Million Dollar Question: Between the Bucks and the Rapors, Wwat team is better?

“I believe the Toronto Raptors are for real,” Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher told me on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.

“I’d probably stop right there, that’s the only team.”

The stats support Bucher’s assessment.

According to Raptor’s Rapture’s writer, Jeff Borsuk, in the month of March, the Toronto Raptors went 9-6, which was good enough to be tied with the Denver Nuggets for the twelfth-best record in the league. While that may appear alarming, it is important to recognize that the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors were each just a half-game better than the Raps.

The Milwaukee Bucks are on the verge of clinching the NBA’s best record, which would lock the Bucks into the No. 1 spot.

That’s huge. But, Bucher sees it otherwise.

“I’m not buying the Milwaukee Bucks,” he tells the Scoop B Radio Podcast.

“Toronto’s the only team that, from beginning to end, to me, has been consistent, or I haven’t scratched my head at times and said: ‘there’s something wrong, I don’t know if I can believe in everything that they’re doing.’ So that’s the one team. Now, I’m not saying that they’re going to win it, but, if you ask me, ‘is there a team that I can see in their Conference Finals?’, the Toronto Raptors is probably the team, and the only team, that I can say with assurance that I expect to see there.”

This would be the year for the Raptors to get it right. The team can go deep in their conference without LeBron James in it.

James is now a Los Angeles Laker, a team in the NBA’s Western Conference. But the Bucks are also fire engine red hot with the emergence of Giannis Antetokounmpo being a potential NBA MVP candidate.