Jack, Belinelli lead Raps in comeback win over Bucks

By Holly J. MacKenzie, for NBA.com
Posted Saturday January 23, 2010 12:02AM

TORONTO (NBA.com exclusive) -- Wasting a career-night from leader Chris Bosh in a loss to Milwaukee on Wednesday night, the Raptors were home and wanted the win. Having already dropped two games to the Bucks this season, it was the play of guards Jarrett Jack and Marco Belinelli that propelled them to the 101-96 come-from-behind victory Friday evening.

"We really had to dig down deep to get ourselves back into the ballgame and we just kept fighting, man." Jarrett Jack said. "Kept fighting and plugging away and we were able to attain the lead and pull it out in the end."

Coming out flat, the Raptors fell behind by as many as 15 in the first half, trailed by nine at the break and knew they would need to chip away at the Milwaukee advantage in the third if they wanted a chance at getting the win. Getting 27 points on nine field goal attempts from Jack and 16 points off of the bench from Belinelli helped.

They also made a key defensive adjustment coming out of a timeout in the third quarter. They went to a zone. Sounds simple enough, but the Bucks struggled to score from the perimeter and were limited to just 16 points in the period.

"We came out of the locker room a little bit mentally lazy to start the third." Scott Skiles said. "We busted up a couple of plays right away and had to use a timeout. Then they went to their zone and we just looked like we'd never seen a zone before."

Jack also praised the decision to switch to the zone.

"They just got so used to the man that Coach went to the zone. I thought it was a great change of pace." Jack said. "It definitely slowed them down and they looked a little bit confused and that was just a great call by Coach Triano."

With starter Andrea Bargnani missing his second game of the season with a sore lower back, the Raptors got creative with some of their lineups.

"We just seemed to have to scrap and find something to get us going...when we couldn't get over the hump we decided to go zone for a little bit and when we did that we could play smaller guys and it created great energy for us, four guys around the perimeter."

Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings couldn't understand why the zone created so many problems for his team.

"It looked like we didn't actually know what was going on." Jennings said "A lot of teams haven't played a zone lately and this was the first time that a team actually played a zone and kept running it, running it, running it and it was working for them tonight. We were getting open shots and weren't making them and they were coming down scoring. It was real frustrating."

Finishing with 14 points on 5-for-15 shooting, it was a frustrating game for Jennings. Andrew Bogut had 22 points for the Bucks who were led by Luke Ridnour's season-high of 27 off of the bench.

Going into the fourth trailing by five, the Raptors were the aggressors over the final 12 minutes and were rewarded with 19 free-throw attempts to the Bucks five. Again and again the Raptors got to the rim, led by the play of Jack who led the Raptors with 13 points in the period, perfect from both the floor and free-throw line.

Despite his strong play, he referenced a play by Chris Bosh as a defining moment down the stretch. Getting denied by Andrew Bogut at the rim, Bosh retained possession and attacked the rim again, drawing free throws.

Letting out a scream as the play stopped, it was clear to everyone in the arena that he didn't have any intention of giving the ball up.

"He wasn't going to be denied at that point, by anything." Jack said. "From your leader, your franchise player that's the type of example that you have to see. Time and time again he's done it."

Putting his squad up seven with two made free throws, Bosh was able to breathe easy as the point guard duo of Jack and Jose Calderon went 7-for-8 from the line to close the game out. He also did not have to go for a career-high this time, finishing with 17 points and seven rebounds.

"Do whatever it takes." Bosh said of the final quarter. "We didn't want to disappoint the crowd tonight. We kept our effort up, kept fighting, playing good basketball and pulled one out."

• Bucks: Alexander, Gadzuric, Redd
• Raptors: Bargnani, Evans

• Bucks: --
• Raptors: --

• Lead Changes: 9
• Times Tied: 7

• Arena: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, OT
• Officials: #57 Greg Willard, #33 Sean Corbin, #39 Kevin Fehr
• Attendance: 17819
• Duration: 2:36