Alijah Martin's Career Night Carries Short-Handed Raptors Past Bucks 121-107

Alijah Martin had scored 23 points all season. On Friday night in Milwaukee he scored 27 in one game. The little-used second-year guard led a Toronto Raptors team missing three starters to a 121-107 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in NBA Cup group play. RJ Barrett also scored 27.

The Raptors played without Kawhi Leonard (knee), Scottie Barnes (groin) and starting guard Immanuel Quickley (hamstring), The Associated Press reported. Leonard has now missed seven straight games. Toronto moved to 5-4 on the season and 1-1 in East Group A, which also includes Detroit, Orlando and Brooklyn.

From 6-of-27 to 6-of-7

Martin shot 9-of-11 from the field and 6-of-7 from three-point range. Before Friday he had made only 6 of 27 three-point attempts in his NBA career, and the 2025 second-round pick out of Florida had never scored more than nine points in any of his previous 30 games, according to the AP.

The Raptors took Martin 39th overall in 2025. He spent last season on a two-way contract and appeared in only 23 NBA games, Sportsnet's Michael Grange wrote. The team signed him to a standard contract this season, but off-season knee surgery slowed him down. He came into Friday with 49 minutes played across seven appearances.

"I don't want to get emotional, but when you love the game and it just gets stripped away from you … from like, things you can't control, you just hit rock bottom," Martin told reporters, referring to the knee surgery. "So I'm grateful, honestly. I'm just going to keep my head down, stay humble and just keep pushing."

His mother, Tina, was in the building. She has family in Milwaukee and made the trip from the family's home in Mississippi, Sportsnet reported. Martin said he didn't know he was about to have a big night, "but I knew I was about to play hard" because she was coming.

Shead's 16 assists, Poeltl's big fourth quarter

Jamal Shead, making his first start of the season, set a career high with 16 assists to go with 10 points and committed just one turnover, per Sportsnet. Shead set up the pair of open threes that got Martin rolling.

"He's been there waiting, waiting and it was cool to see him get his shine," Shead said.

Collin Murray-Boyles and Jakob Poeltl each scored 19, the AP reported. Poeltl had come into the game averaging 5.2 points and 5.7 rebounds after missing two games with bursitis in his left shoulder. Against Milwaukee he added 11 rebounds, six of them offensive, and scored 11 of his points in the fourth quarter, Sportsnet reported.

A second-half turnaround

Milwaukee led 60-51 at halftime after grabbing 11 offensive rebounds and shooting 55 per cent from the field in the first half, according to Sportsnet. Toronto then outscored the Bucks 70-47 after the break. The Raptors took their first lead on a Martin three that made it 71-69 with 5:41 left in the third quarter. They went ahead for good on an Allen Graves three-point play with 2:17 left in the quarter, per the AP.

"It was inspirational the way the guys stayed together," head coach Darko Rajakovic said. "It was a huge cultural win for us, I would say."

The win came against a team the Raptors were expected to beat. The Bucks fell to 1-8, their slowest start since 1993-94, the AP noted, in their first season since Giannis Antetokounmpo left for the Miami Heat. Still, Toronto had allowed 126.8 points per 100 possessions over its previous four games, which ranked 29th in the league over that stretch, Grange wrote. Barnes and Quickley together account for about 40 points a game.

Tyler Herro led Milwaukee with 23 points and 10 assists. Rookie Brayden Burries set career highs with 21 points and 11 rebounds, per the AP.

What's next

The win ended a four-game road trip at 2-2. Earlier on the trip Toronto lost to the Lakers and Nuggets, Sportsnet noted. The Raptors host the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night, according to the AP. The team has said it will update Leonard's status around Nov. 10, as The Toronto Journal reported earlier this week.