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After an exciting start into this year’s NBA campaign, the Milwaukee Bucks slowed down and dropped five of their last six. Thus, Brandon Jennings and company are hoping to bounce back versus the struggling Toronto Raptors on Thursday at 1 a.m. GMT.

Unlike the Bucks, the Raptors’ front-office is not happy at all with how things have turned out so far. Being extremely active during the off-season, GM Bryan Colangelo was hoping for a major leap to the playoff mix but had to watch his team stumble to a 7-13 record one month into the season. Although the addition of Hedo Turkoglu, Jarret Jack, Demar DeRozan and Marco Belinelli drastically improved Toronto’s offense, the Raps also deteriorated at the other end of the floor. In fact, Jay Triano’s squad is one of the worst defensive teams in the league, allowing a whopping 111 points per contest. That said, Chris Bosh and company might still be able to improve as the season goes on and make it to the playoffs down the stretch. Ultimately, the Raps have a lot of talent on their roster and a very deep bench that should be able to carry them to the post-season, provided they start playing defense that is. Offensively, franchise cornerstone Chris Bosh has been putting up career stats as he averaged 24.4 points, 12.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.1 blocks per game.

In contrast, Milwaukee got off to a much better start than most would have expected before the season. Being right at the .500 mark with a 9-9 record, the Bucks definitely played up to their potential and were led by the inspiring performance of rookie point guard Brandon Jennings. Possibly the favorite to win the rookie of the year award, Jennings put up 21.2 points, 5.9 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 35 minutes per contest. However, it should also be mentioned that the Bucks only came away with one win in their last six games and seem to have hit their first slump in 2009-10. Thus, it looks like the encounter between the Raps and Bucks is still anyone’s game as both teams experienced their fair share of problems over the past two weeks. Albeit Toronto might have slightly more talent on board than Milwaukee, it remains to be seen whether they will finally manage to efficiently utilize their players and compete at the defensive end of the floor.

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