Augustin’s late three points lift Orlando over Raptors
TORONTO — The rebuilt Toronto Raptors opened the NBA playoffs like so many editions before them — with a loss. But the message in the post-game locker room was: It’s only one game.
In a loss that conjured memories of so many Raptors openinggame losses, D.J. Augustin scored a dagger three-pointer with 4.2 seconds to play as part of a 25-point night, and the upstart Orlando Magic beat the Raptors 104-101 on Saturday to take Game 1 of the seven-game opening-round playoff series.
The Raptors are 2-14 in Game 1s all-time, including an eyebrow-raising 1-8 at home.
“It’s first one to win four games,” Toronto’s Marc Gasol said. “You go back, watch the film, see what worked, see what didn’t work, see what you’ve got to do better and play the next game. Win or lose, we’ll come back and do the job again.”
Kawhi Leonard had 25 points but air-balled a three-point attempt on the last play. Pascal Siakam had 24 points, Fred VanVleet had 14, and Gasol and Danny Green scored 13 apiece for the for the Raptors, who went 58-24 in the regular-season for the No. 2 seed in the East, and are making their sixth consecutive playoff appearance.
Kyle Lowry, who took a hard knee to the groin from former Raptor Terrence Ross early in the game, had a horrible offensive night, scoring no points on 0-for-7 shooting.
“I think [Lowry] had some really good looks that he’s going to normally knock down,” said coach Nick Nurse. “We need to get him involved a little bit offensively and we need some points from him.
“But I look down and I see he was a plus-12 in the plus-minus and he had zero points, so he was still impacting the game greatly. I’m sure he’ll bounce back and play a little bit better next game.”
Nikola Vucevic and Jonathan Isaac had 11 points apiece, while Aaron Gordon added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Magic, who were 42-40 in the regular season and are making their first playoff appearance since 2012.
The Raptors are by far the more experienced team, their 320 playoff games by the starters before Saturday numbering almost 10 times that of Orlando’s.
But the Magic, which has been one of the league’s hottest teams since the all-star break, matching Toronto’s conference-best 22-9 record over the final 31 games of the season, didn’t get the memo.
“Our goal was to make the playoffs, but not just make it,” Augustin said. “We want to make noise and win a series or two. We feel like we can.”