IT’S DELIGHTFUL FOR DEMAR AND CO.
Raptors end three-game slide with third-quarter outburst against Sixers,
Veteran Argentine scores 17 points in Toronto’s third-quarter breakout PHILADELPHIA— Luis Scola called it a “vicious circle” but it has to be a fun one, a never-ending series of stops and baskets and stops and baskets that all of a sudden add up to an easy victory.
The veteran Argentine was at the centre of one here Wednesday night, helping the Raptors blitz the Philadelphia 76ers 119-103 to snap a threegame losing streak and restore some confidence to the 6-3 squad.
For nearly five minutes to start the second half, the Raptors held Philadelphia without a point and it got Toronto rolling at the other end.
Scola had the first six points of the quarter, along with a steal and a couple of rebounds as part of a 20-6 run that provided a 20-point cushion before the quarter was seven minutes old.
“It’s a good situation, but I give credit to the team defence,” Scola said. “Coach (Dwane Casey) told us in our locker room that we got eight stops in a row and then we start running and then we get easy shots.
“You get easy shots, your confidence builds, your margin of work grows bigger and than you start trying more things you usually don’t do.
“When you as a team have got that momentum, it’s a lot easier.”
And when things are going for Scola, they’re really going. There’s nothing fancy nor explosive about his play but it can be deadly effective.
“He’s a veteran player, he has flashbacks every once in a while and he did tonight,” Casey said.
“It’s good to see that, good to see him get his confidence. He had missed some easy shots in the past few games.
“You know it’s there because he’s a born scorer.”
Scola had 17 of his 21 points in just 81⁄ 2 minutes, making eight of10 fieldgoal attempts.
“I played with Luis when he was 25, 30,” Kyle Lowry said. “The way Luis plays, he’ll be playing that forever, because his motor is unmatchable and he just gets up and down the floor and when he’s making shots like tonight, he’s good.”
Lowry had 23 points in another good outing in his hometown, while Cory Joseph had 15 points, DeMar DeRozan added 14 and rookie Norman Powell had 13 in his most extended outing of the season.
“(Powell) did a good job of being tough on the defensive end, he got into their shooters, their scorers and attacked the rim with some force, that’s what young guys should do, come in and play with a lot of energy and add energy to the offence,” Casey said.
Rookie Jahlil Okafor led Philadelphia with 26 points and looks as promising as the hype would suggest. Mississauga’s Nik Stauskas finished with just eight points and missed five of the seven three-pointers he took for Philadelphia, now the lone winless team in the league at 0-8.
The win snapped a disheartening three-game losing streak for the Raptors, who face New Orleans at home Friday before striking out for a five-game western road trip.
It wasn’t the most crisp effort of the still young season — the Sixers have barely an NBA-calibre roster and haven’t won a game since last March — but it was necessary if only for the collective psyche.
“It was good to see guys get their confidence.” Casey said. “We’ve had some tough games . . . it’s not like they (weren’t) competing. We’ve had some tough luck — close games, a tough game in Miami — but the games we did lose were hard-fought games and the guys needed to be rewarded for it and they earned it tonight.”