The Toronto Raptors
slash apart the Orlando Magic, 131-112.
TORONTO — Terrence Ross played the first 363 regular-season games of his NBA career for the Toronto Raptors, and he saw DeMar DeRozan dominate games countless times.
Now Ross knows what it feels like to be on the other side.
DeRozan and the Raptors tarnished Ross’ homecoming to Toronto on Monday by blowing out the Magic 131-112 at the Air Canada Centre.
“It’s a different feeling when you’re on the opposite side of a Raptor win,” Ross said. “It sucks. But DeMar’s a hell of a player, a All-Star, one of the best in the league. And he’s just capable of doing anything. We were just trying to slow him down as much as we could.”
Ross enjoyed parts of his return. He scored the game’s opening basket and seven of the Magic’s first 11 points. Even better, the announced crowd of 19,800 gave him a standing ovation after the Raptors aired a
tribute video during the first timeout in the first quarter.
And Ross threw down a 360 dunk that helped the Magic cut a 19-point Raptors lead to 94-89 with 12.4 seconds left in the third quarter.
Then, the Raptors delivered an end-of-the-quarter backbreaker.
DeRozan sank a pull-up jumper after a Toronto screen forced the Magic to switch Mario Hezonja onto him.
On Orlando’s subsequent inbounds pass, Bismack Biyombo tossed the ball lackadaisically toward Aaron Gordon, and the Raptors’ Delon Wright intercepted the ball. Wright hoisted a 3-pointer from the left corner just before the buzzer and swished the shot. The trey extended the Raptors’ lead to 99-89.
The Magic never recovered.
“That was a momentum killer,” Magic coach Frank Vogel said.
The Raptors made 59.0 percent of their shots, and no one inflicted more damage than DeRozan, who scored a game-high 36 points.
“They were making shots, for sure,” center Nikola Vucevic said. “They played a good game, but I thought our defense wasn’t really on point. We weren’t aggressive enough. We didn’t execute the game plan like we should have.”
On Feb. 14, the Magic traded Serge Ibaka to the Raptors for Ross and the less favorable of the Raptors’ 2017 first-round picks.
Ibaka contributed 16 points and seven rebounds against his former team.
Ross finished with 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
Just before tipoff, he walked over to the Raptors’ bench and hugged coach Dwane Casey.
Ross expected a warm reaction from Casey, but Ross had no idea how Raptors fans would respond. On Sunday, he remarked to Magic teammate Evan Fournier that he was worried the fans might boo him. The opposite occurred. Ross loved the tribute video and the fans’ warm response.
“It was good seeing that everybody appreciated what I did over the years,” Ross said.
“I just wanted to be aggressive coming out and take it to those guys. It’s the first time I played them, so of course I was going to try to come out and go at their throat. It was fun. I wish I could do it again.”
But the Raptors (45-29) attacked the Magic (27-47) with the same ferocity that Ross unleashed on his former teammates.
Toronto’s 131 points are the highest point total against Orlando this season.
“They were making tough shots: fallaways, fadeaways,” Gordon said. “They were moving the ball very well. They execute. Yeah, they were just making shots.”