RAPTORS-MAGIC
Serge Ibaka and the Raptors went down to the wire in a 93-91 win over the Magic.
For the third time in four games, a Raptors contest came down to the wire. For the first time in those games, Toronto came out on top — 93-91 over the red-hot Orlando Magic, who had won three in a row before Tuesday night. It was all about Danny Green in the final minute of play. With the visitors up by two and 10 seconds on the clock, the 31-year-old veteran slipped up defensively — allowing Evan Fournier past him in the paint to tie the game at 91-91. Fournier finished with a game-high 27 points, the only player on either
side to rack up 20 or more. But Green, who had eight of his 13 points in the fourth quarter, made up for that mistake by hitting a baseline jumper off an inbound play from Kyle Lowry to seal the win with 0.5 seconds left. The Raptors are 2-1 on their four-game road swing and 14-4 on the season.
Benched mob: OG Anunoby (wrist) and C.J. Miles (adductor) remained out despite coach Nick Nurse saying the pair might be active. Kyle Lowry’s availability was a game-time decision after he suffered an ankle injury against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday and didn’t practice Monday. He was announced as part of the starting lineup a half-hour before tipoff. Lowry made three of eight attempts from three-point range.
Centre stage: The Raptors’ best defence came from their co-conspirators at the five spot, Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas. Together, they held the Eastern Conference player of the week, Nikola Vucevic, to 14 points and four assists, though the Magic centre did dominate on the glass with 18 rebounds.
Play of the night: Pascal Sia-- kam’s patented spin-and-drive move is becoming familiar to Raptors fans, but apparently not to Orlando’s Aaron Gordon. Siakam left Gordon scratching his head when he spun to the right at the top of the paint and laid one in during the first quarter.
Not so trendy: Nurse said last Wednesday that his team was developing a worrying trend of giving up big leads, and that didn’t change Tuesday night. the Raptors up by 18 at one point in the first half and went into the break up by 10, but headed into the fourth quarter down by two. Collectively, they shot just 9-for-34 from beyond the arc.
Up next: Vince Carter and the slumping Atlanta Hawks host the Raptors on Wednesday night.