T-ROSS BRINGS HIS MAGIC TRICKS TO TORONTO
Former Raptor is too much to handle as Orlando ends Toronto’s seven-game win streak
Magic guard Terrence Ross, being defended by the Raptors’ OG Anunoby, had a game-high 28 points in Orlando’s 113-98 win over Toronto at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday. “We are playing for (a playoff spot), so it just kind of (increased) the intensity for us,” Ross said.
Orlando’s Ross shows off skills he teased before trade
Terrence Ross was once seen as a key part of the Raptors future, a gifted athlete and three-point shooter who once scored 51 points in a game in a Toronto uniform.
Now he’s pretty much the same thing with the Orlando Magic, and he showed his old team why Sunday afternoon.
Ross, traded for Serge Ibaka in a necessary deal that has helped both teams, lit up the Raptors for 28 points at the Scotiabank Arena, leading Orlando to a 113-98 win that snapped a seven-game Toronto winning streak.
Ross hit three three-pointers, went 7-for-7 from the freethrow line and added nine rebounds for the Magic, who are chasing one of the final playoff berths in the Eastern Conference.
“It was terrible for us tonight, so that part I don’t like,” Kyle Lowry said. “For (Ross), him being a friend of mine, it’s good to see him playing the way he’s playing. He’s always been a talented player. This is just him getting older. More experience is just going to make him get better at basketball.”
The Raptors, who rested Kawhi Leonard and gave Marc Gasol his first start, were shabby for most of the game and couldn’t find a way to get untracked.
Lowry had 19 points and 10 assists, and Pascal Siakam added 10 points and 11 rebounds.
“I thought (Gasol) played pretty good,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said. “I thought we missed a couple rotations that made it look like maybe he was the guilty party on (defence) that I don't think were his fault, they were more just team defensive mistakes ... I like him. I really like him.”
A new personal standard: Serge Ibaka scored 14 points after coming off the bench and has now scored 10 or more in 22 straight games, a career best for the 10-year veteran.
A day of rest: Despite it not being a particularly onerous point in the schedule, Toronto’s Kawhi Leonard had a day off for rest, or “load management” in the vernacular these days.
It’s the 11th game he has missed for rest; he missed six others for knee and ankle soreness and a sore back.
The Raptors played Feb. 13, had nine days off for the all-star break (Leonard played 14 minutes in that game), played Friday against San Antonio (Leonard logged nearly 35 minutes in the game) and play twice more this week — Tuesday against Boston and Friday against Portland.
“We just feel like we’re in a really good place right now with him and we just want to make sure we stay there,” Nurse said.
Add another one: The Kyle Lowry-Danny Green-OG Anunoby-Pascal Siakam-Marc Gasol starting lineup was the 15th different one the Raptors have used this season.
Up next: A rather key Eastern Conference set-to with the Celtics, Tuesday at 8 p.m. It’s the final game between the teams. Boston leads the season series, 2-1.