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FRED VanVleet scored a career-high 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting as the Toronto Raptors steamrolled the Cleveland Cavaliers 133-99 on Thursday in Toronto.

CJ Miles made four 3-pointers while scoring 16 points and Jonas Valanciunas contributed 15 points and a season-high 18 rebounds for the Raptors. Pascal Siakam also scored 16 points, Norman Powell tallied 14 and DeMar DeRozan added 13 points and eight assists as Toronto won for the sixth time in the past seven games.

LeBron James had 26 points for the Cavaliers, who were routed for the second straight contest while losing for the sixth time in the past eight games. Cleveland trailed by as many as 41 points in Monday’s 127-99 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The margins of defeat -- 28 and 34 -- represent the Cavaliers’ two worst of the season.

Cleveland’s Isaiah Thomas tallied just four points on 2-of-15 shooting. He missed all six of his 3-point attempts after having made at least one in his last 60 regular-season games in what was the second-longest active streak in the NBA behind Golden State’s Klay Thompson (95).

The Raptors posted a dominating 63-35 rebounding edge and limited the Cavaliers to 38.2 percent from the field.

Toronto played without point guard Kyle Lowry (back) for the second straight game. Forward Serge Ibaka also missed the contest after drawing a one-game suspension for exchanging punches with Miami Heat forward James Johnson on Tuesday.

VanVleet received extended playing time with Lowry sidelined, making a career-best six 3-pointers (in eight attempts) and not committing a turnover in 24 minutes.

The Raptors led 30-24 after the first quarter and began pulling away in the second. VanVleet scored five straight points during a 14-2 burst that gave Toronto a 55-34 edge and OG Anunoby drained a jumper to push the margin to 25 with 2:35 left en route to a 65-40 halftime advantage.

Anunoby and VanVleet drained back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 93-63 with 1:24 left in the third quarter. DeRozan nailed two 3-pointers in the final minute as the Raptors took a 100-72 lead into the final stanza.

Lorenzo Brown’s ferocious dunk gave Toronto a 113-78 lead with 7:59 to go and the Raptors finished off their highest scoring game of the season.

BOYET Sison of the popular television sports show “Hard Ball” asked Francis Arnaiz: “In your time, would your All-Star team beat the All-Star Team of today?” “No, never,” said Arnaiz. “Why?” “Because the game has become so different today,” said Arnaiz. “Basketball was so simple and uncomplicated then compared to today’s brand of basketball.”

“How would you compare yourselves to today’s crop of players?” Sison pursued.

“Players today are wellconditioned and so focused and determined,” said Arnaiz.

“Please elaborate?” said Sison.

“The training is really hard for the guys now,” said Arnaiz. “The players of today, including the still really young ones, are really dead serious in their basketball business. Their maturity is amazing.”

“Why, what was it like in your era?”

“There was more fun than really playing serious basketball,” said Arnaiz. “The coach is there to just tell us, ‘O, ikaw Francis, bantayan mo nang mahigpit ang tao mo.’ Just like that. No way you could hear a coach break down a play, or even see a coach map out so-called strategies using a pentel pen on the drawing board.”

Even the hard bumps and vicious body contacts that we all see in the present basketball republic as common fare were, to Arnaiz, virtually taboo in their time.

In Arnaiz’ estimation, the sheer physicality of today’s game had no place in his time.

Yes, for in their era, even a minor nudge or an inadvertent