Raptors’ streak ends at the hands, and arms, of a backup
Orlando seven-footer Dewayne Dedmon disrupts Toronto offence
ORLANDO— Basketball coaches spend hours, days when they can, preparing for a game, analyzing every play. There’s only so much they can control when the ball goes up, so they spend those hours looking for an edge.
So when someone like Nikola Vucevic gets a bone bruise on his right knee, everything, including the Raptors’ undefeated season, can go out the window with the trickle-down effect that follows.
The Raptors lost for the first time this season on Friday, 92-87 to the Orlando Magic. Backup centre Dewayne Dedmon wasn’t the sole reason that the Magic won.
The 26-year-old had 10 points and four rebounds with three blocked shots in 30 minutes, but he represented what Orlando brought. The Magic were tough, physical and had a level of consistency that the Raptors weren’t able to duplicate. The Raptors fell to 5-1, the Magic improved to 2-4.
“It’s a game that we should have won,” Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry said, his legs resting in a bucket of ice after the game. “(But) those guys came out and played aggressive all night and that’s how their coach (Scott Skiles) always has his teams play. They got the best of us.”
The Raptors shook off what was likely their worst first quarter of the season — they shot17.5 per cent from the field and only scored 15 points — to take control of the game in the third. DeMar DeRozan scored 15 of his game-high 23 in that quarter and worked with Lowry, who was clutch throughout the second half and finished with 17 points, five rebounds and two assists, to bring the game to life in time for the fourth quarter.
With the Magic up 88-87 after DeRozan split a pair of free throws with 25.2 seconds left, the Raptors got the ball back after Orlando lost the ball out of bounds.
“We didn’t take advantage of the opportunity they did give us,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “I’ve got to go look at the film, but I thought DeMar had a layup under the basket but fumbled it and then still had another opportunity to get something good and solid. We had a rushed shot at the end.”
DeRozan was stripped under the basket on that play, but DeMarre Carroll recovered the ball and got it to Lowry, who looked into the post for Jonas Valanciunas.
“I should have shot the ball,” Lowry said. “I threw it to (Valanciunas) in the paint, he wanted to hand it off to me and I just trusted him to make a play. I should have shot the ball.”
Valanciunas put up a sweeping left hander with about seven seconds to go, bodied on the drive by Orlando’s Jason Smith, and missed. Victor Oladipo grabbed the rebound and ran the ball out of danger.
DeRozan and Valanciunas huddled together at DeRozan’s stall after the game and watched the film of the sequence, speaking quietly with a Raptors staffer.
“Mainly me missing the free throw is what I’m going to be dwelling on the most,” DeRozan said. “(Making) that free throw so we wouldn’t be in a position like that.
“Plays like that, where you lose the ball because you’re scrambling, that’s going to happen. You really can’t control that but I can control making those free throws.”
“We needed a bucket,” Valanciunas said of his shot. “Everybody who has the ball has an opportunity to try to score.”
The Magic were led by Tobias Harris’s 20 points. He was one of five Magic players in double-digit scoring. The Raptors head to Miami next, hoping to leave the first-quarter team in Orlando.
“We’ve got to be able to focus,” said Raptors guard Cory Joseph, who scored 19 off the bench. “There’s no excuses. They wanted it more than us and they outplayed us.”