Undermanned Raptors solve the Magic
On a night Toronto Raptors coach Dwane Casey gave two starters a rest, C.J. Miles and OG Anunoby filled in the void.
Miles scored 22 points in one of his best performances of the season, while Anunoby added a career-high 21 points, and the undermanned Raptors beat Orlando 112-101 on Sunday in their final home game of the regular season.
Casey gave DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valaniunas the night off with an eye toward the playoffs which begin on Saturday. With the big games from Miles and Anunoby, the move paid off for all four players.
“We needed it. All I can say is we needed it,” Casey said on Anunoby. “We’re trying to rest people. It’s not like we totally need rest, but I think it’s the prudent thing to do for our team. We needed that. He needed that. I thought it was a good thing as far as his shooting, his offensive game was concerned. I thought he did a good job defensively.”
Norm Powell and Serge Ibaka added 13 points apiece for the Raptors (5822). Jakob Poeltl and Delon Wright each finished with 12 points, while Kyle Lowry had 11.
“We shot the ball confidently,” Lowry said. “That’s the one thing about the game I really liked. We shot the ball confidently. We needed that, heading into the next couple of weeks, shooting the ball confidently.”
Casey said he’ll likely sit another starter tonight in Detroit, but it should be all hands on deck in their regularseason finale Wednesday in Miami.
Aaron Gordon led the Magic (24-56) with 16 points. Khem Birch of Montreal hauled down a game-high 12 rebounds to go with 12 points.
The Raptors led by double digits for