Raptors third-stringers give team late push against Magic
ORLANDO, FLA. Kyle Lowry scored 25 points and Toronto used a strong fourth-quarter defensive effort to beat the Orlando Magic 93-86 on Tuesday night.
The Raptors have now won a franchise-record nine straight road games.
“Mentally, we have to be sharp in these games,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. “We weren’t for three quarters, found a way in the fourth quarter. Somehow, some way, we’ve got to get our mental focus, our mental edge back. It’s a dead time of the year, which is no excuse, but we’ve got some dead heads and dead eyes that are out there trying to get it done.
“Our young guys came in, Lucas Nogueira came in and gave us a good night, Lorenzo Brown, our two-way player (he was called up from the Raptors 905), came in and gave us some good minutes. I thought they were really, really good. They came in and did their job.”
Toronto limited Orlando to 3-of-19 shooting (15.8 per cent) in the fourth quarter, helping the Raptors overcome an eight-point deficit and win for the 12th time in their last 13 games.
Serge Ibaka had 14 points and Delon Wright and Norm Powell had 10 apiece for Toronto.
Shelvin Mack led Orlando with 17 points. Aaron Gordon, returning after missing five games with a concussion, added 16 points. Nikola Vucevic had 15 points and nine rebounds for Orlando, which has lost seven of its last eight.
The Raptors bench did most of the work in the final period. The reserves pressured Orlando all over the floor, forcing the Magic to miss their first 11 shots and commit four turnovers, opening the door for a Raptors comeback.
Casey turned to Nogueira with Jonas Valanciunas and Jacob Poeltl each having off nights.
“It was a process of elimination,” Casey said.
“Jacob was struggling, J.V. was struggling, so we had to have someone at the end there to come in and give us something, a presence, and Lucas did that. We’ve got to continue to look at him if he’s going to give us that spark because no minutes are guaranteed for anyone right now.”
Toronto had its problems offensively, making just one field goal in the first five minutes of the period. The Raptors finally got it going when Brown’s off-balance jumper in the lane started a 12-0 run that ended with Pascal Siakam draining a corner three-pointer for an 84-78 lead with 4:52 to play.
The Magic finally got a field goal when Vucevic hit a turnaround jumper in the lane to make it 8480 with 4:34 left in the game. The Magic went scoreless over the next three minutes, allowing Toronto to increase the lead to 91-80 on Lowry’s three-pointer with 1:39 to play.
“Down the stretch, he made big shot after big shot. Kyle is a smart player,” said Casey.
The Magic guards consistently beat Toronto off the dribble in the first half, leading to a nearly nonstop parade of layups and dunks and a 34-20 advantage on points in the paint.
Toronto’s guards countered from the perimeter, led by Lowry, who scored 16 points in the half. Four of the Raptors’ last five field goals were three-pointers, including one from Lowry that gave Toronto a 52-51 halftime advantage.
DeMar DeRozan sat out the game with a thigh contusion.
Toronto’s franchise-record streak of 23 straight games scoring more than 100 points ended.
The Raptors finish a road backto-back at Cleveland on Wednesday night.
In between the first and second quarters, the Magic paid tribute to Tracy McGrady, who entered the league straight out of school in 1997 when GM Isiah Thomas used Toronto’s first-round pick to take the high-flying teenager. McGrady bolted to Orlando in free agency during the summer of 2000, embarking on a remarkable career as one of the game’s premier scorers.
During his time in Toronto, visits by the Raptors to Central Florida often attracted a large contingent of Raptors fans.
Back then, the enticement was to watch Vince Carter, who grew up in nearby Daytona. on Tuesday night, there were many Raptors supporters at Amway Center who weren’t afraid to show their allegiance.
Percy Miller, the rapper known as Master P, was sitting courtside, a name fans may recall from the Butch Carter coaching era in Toronto when the club gave Miller an audition, appearing in a preseason game in Dallas.
The Associated Press
With files from Frank Ziccarelli