No Scottie Barnes, no problem as Raptors crush Bucks in Milwaukee

Immanuel Quickley, Brandon Ingram, Raptors bench shine in easy win.

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Published Feb 22, 2026  •  4 minute read

Toronto Raptors' Brandon Ingram drives to the basket against Milwaukee Bucks' Myles Turner in Milwaukee on Sunday. Photo by Aaron Gash /The Associated Press

It was no Scottie Barnes, no problem, for the Toronto Raptors in Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon.

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The two-time all-star was excused for personal reasons, but a balanced attack was meticulously effective in the absence of Barnes and got the better of a Bucks team that had won 6-of-7.

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Immanuel Quickley had one of his finest games of the season, scoring 32, Brandon Ingram avoided double and triple-teams to add 22 and several other Raptors were solid in the 122-94 victory. Kevin Porter Jr. was the best Buck with 21 points and 10 assists.

Toronto was coming off a 110-101 win at Chicago Thursday to end the all-star break and was again well-rested, with two days off. Milwaukee continued to be without superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, but got starting centre Myles Turner back.

It was just the second game all season Barnes has missed. Jakob Poeltl returned to his starting spot after making a rare bench appearance against the Bulls, with rookie Collin Murray-Boyles shifting to the bench despite strong work as a starter. This was easily the most comfortable Poeltl has looked in his three games back following a long injury absence, a positive sign. As was Quickley going off, which has happened a lot more often when Poeltl has been able to play over the years (thanks to great screen-setting by Poeltl and timing between the two). Toronto only committed six turnovers, compared to the Bucks’ 17.

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More takeaways from a tidy Raptors performance:

WALTER GETS A REWARD

Ja’Kobe Walter was coming off a good one and was rewarded with a start. Since the Bucks are pretty small, other than Turner, who Poeltl was reinserted to match up with, it was pretty easy to eschew size with Walter at shooting guard shifting RJ Barrett to small forward and Ingram to power forward.

Ingram has spent about 21% of his career minutes, including 19% this season, at power forward, per basketball-reference.com and as Darko Rajakovic recently said, there isn’t a huge difference between small and power forwards nowadays. Gone are the days where the four-man was most commonly a slow-moving bruiser who wasn’t much of a shooting threat. Today’s players are more position-less and nearly everyone needs to be able to shoot and cover ground on defence.

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Barrett has actually played more small forward (57%) than small forward (34%) for his career. Walter has spent 87% of his time this season at shooting guard.

Walter had another good shift to start the game, grabbing five rebounds and making two three-pointers in his first 16 minutes. He did a little bit of everything overall and got up eight three-pointers, the fourth-most in a game over his two NBA seasons. Walter continues to impress and push for more time.

ONE THAT GOT AWAY?

Milwaukee hasn’t done well at the NBA draft in the near decade since taking eventual rookie of the year Malcolm Brogdon 36th overall (after missing on Thon Maker 26 picks earlier). They haven’t had high picks, so it’s not like they should have expected to land all-stars, but even contributors have been few and far between. Donte Divincenzo and Kevin Porter Jr., who is on the team again now, are probably the best of the bunch.

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The team did wisely trade for Mamukelashvili to get him 54th in the 2021 draft, seeing something in the former Seton Hall star.

The Bucks then signed Mamukelashvili to a two-way contract and watched him dominate in the G League (20.7 points, 11 rebounds, 2.7 assists per game) as a rookie and shoot 42% from three in 41 games in the NBA, but only gave him a limited look. That continued the next year when Mamukelashvili was even better in four G League games, but struggled in 24 Bucks appearances before being waived. It’s hard to believe they didn’t think there was room for a talented young player on a minimum salary, but that’s what happened.

San Antonio wisely claimed Mamukelashvili off waivers and ironically it was because they needed help up front because they’d just traded Poeltl back to Toronto a few weeks earlier. That helped him get his first standard NBA contract. The Spurs would keep him around for two more years and Mamukelashvili was able to establish himself as a viable player. Toronto made an extremely smart free agent signing last summer and Mamukelashvili has already become one of the best free agent grabs in franchise history.

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He had 10 in the first half before cooling off. Milwaukee should have kept him around.

BUCKING AROUND

Speaking of the Bucks, Turner had been questionable with a calf issue, but was able to play. The two-time NBA blocked shots champion has delivered about what was expected when the Bucks controversially dumped Damian Lillard to create the room to sign him. The idea was to pair Antetokounmpo with a younger, fleeter version of long-time Bucks centre Brook Lopez, but the duo hasn’t been able to spend much time together yet.

Milwaukee has been one of the weirdest stories of this NBA season so far. The will they or won’t they Giannis trade saga has consumed things, along with the all-time greats injury issues. The Bucks have underwhelmed, sinking to the play-in — or worse — but might have hit gold in scoring guard Cam Thomas. The team will have to outscore opponents most nights because they don’t play much defence, and Thomas can certainly fill it up.

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Milwaukee came in second in the NBA in three-point accuracy and fourth in made threes per game, well ahead of Toronto, 26th in three-point shooting and 25th in made threes.

Toronto started this one 2-for-13 from three, but the Bucks fared only slightly better at 2-for-9. The Raptors then went 6-for-10 to close the half (vs. 1-for-7 for Milwaukee) and that was a big reason Toronto led by nine points.

Overall, Toronto attempted 46 three-pointers (two off the season high) and made 16, tied for their fifth-most (Milwaukee uncharacteristically only hit nine (their second-fewest all season) and shot 28.1% from three).

@WolstatSun

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