10 things I saw from Raptors-Magic (18–12–2016) – The Defeated
#NBABallot: DeMar DeRozan was just ridiculous. I don’t even know what else to say about him. He gets 30 in his sleep. He set the tone early by driving at Orlando’s interior defenders, mixed in some DeKobe DeBryant shots from the high post, got to the line whenever the defense made a mistake, and even drilled two threes.
After slow start, Raptors roll to win over Magic | Toronto Sun
It was the kind of defence even their head coach, who has been as critical as anyone of them lately, had to like.
“I thought that was a good bounce-back for us after our lacklustre defensive game against Atlanta but that’s the way we have to play,” Dwane Casey said. “If we’re going to be important or relevant in this league, we have to play with that defensive intensity every night.
Casey has been coaxing and cajoling his team back to its defensive ways for weeks now and saw intermittent progress, but the final three quarters were the longest stretch of continuously hard defence they have played in more than a month.
“They were locked in. The guys were locked in and everybody did their job on each possession,” Casey said of the improved defensive play. “We talked about it this morning, we showed everybody from Kyle Lowry to whoever played the other night, clips. They’re bad clips. We’ve got to play that way and when we start believing the No. 1 offensive-ranking hype and believing the jump shot and think that’s going to carry us, and it will. You’ve got to score in this league, but you’ve got to defend your butt off on the other end.
“That’s the way we have to play if we want to be relevant, if we want to be a championship team.”
Game Rap: Raptors 109, Magic 79 | Toronto Raptors
RAPTORS PLAYER OF THE GAME
DeMar DeRozan scored a game-high 31 points in 30 minutes of action. He scored 20 of his 31 in the first half, and he shot 13-for-21 from the floor. DeRozan added five rebounds, four assists and a steal. Kyle Lowry played 35 minutes and scored 16 points to go with 10 assists, three rebounds and a steal. He shot 3-for-9 from the floor and 8-for-8 from the free throw line. The Raptors were a +24 when Lowry was on the floor.
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Magic vs. Raptors: Postgame Report | Orlando Magic
Orlando (12-17) was hoping to notch its first home win of the season against an elite team, but those dreams disappeared following a game-turning 32-21 second quarter and a game-sealing 29-13 third period. The Magic have been sound on the road, compiling a 7-7 record and winning in San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Detroit and Atlanta. But they have been unable to capitalize on that due to their sloppiness and sluggishness at home. Sunday’s one-sided result dropped them to a frustrating 5-10 at the Amway Center.
“For some reason, we just struggle at home and I can’t tell why,’’ said Magic guard Evan Fournier, who had a team-high 15 points, but just three after halftime. “We have a lot of good wins on the road against elite teams, but at home we just struggle. So we’ve got to figure that out.’’
Orlando shot just 41 percent from the floor, missed 16 of its first 17 3-point shots and turned the ball over 19 times for 28 points for Toronto (19-8). The Magic actually made 13 of their first 23 shots (56.5 percent), but they connected on only 16 of 49 (32.7 percent) over the next 28 minutes of game action to fall into a 27-point hole. That deficit ultimately swelled to as much as 35, leaving the Magic looking for answers once again.
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Raptors embarrass Magic 109-79 at Amway Center – Orlando Sentinel
The Magic too often settled for bad or decent shots instead of making extra passes in search of good or great shots.
Vogel said he saw the Magic “not playing for each other, playing with blinders and not trusting the pass that has been so good for us the last however many games, pounding the basketball too much. And you can’t play for yourselves in this league. You get embarrassed.”
The Magic (12-17) just cannot generate any traction at home.
They have lost seven of their last eight games at Amway Center.
But Sunday’s defeat was the worst of the bunch.
DeRozan scored a game-high 31 points and did not play in the fourth quarter.
The Raptors (19-8) didn’t need him anymore.
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Toronto Raptors 109 Orlando Magic 79: Magic disappear in second half – Orlando Pinstriped Post
After a strong first quarter, things began coming apart for the Magic in the second. Their struggles to take care of the ball plagued them in a big way, with the Raptors turning four Magic mistakes into 10 points. Toronto also began heating up from beyond the arc, knocking down four three-pointers in the quarter. With the Magic’s struggles on both end, and the Raptors finding their legs, the visitors rallied to take a four point lead, 55-51, into halftime.
Down just four at the half, the wheels completely fell off for the Magic in the third quarter. Toronto opened the half on a 10-0 run, and the Magic offense was never able to rebound, running little action throughout the entire quarter. The Magic struggled to defend without fouling, or keep the Raptors out of the paint, paving the way for Toronto to shoot 11-17 in the quarter. Thanks to their lackluster 13 point quarter, the Magic found themselves completely out of contention, trailing by 20, 84-64, heading to the fourth.
With the game out of hand, there wasn’t much for the Magic to play for. Frank Vogel turned to the end of the bench, including Mario Hezonja and Arinze Onuaku. The Magic continued to miss shots, letting the Raptors cruise big.
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Orlando Magic Grades: Toronto Raptors 109, Orlando Magic 79 – Orlando Magic Daily
There is not much bad to say about the Toronto Raptors in this game. They struggled a bit at the beginning but got themselves back on track and dominated the game from the middle of the second quarter on. Toronto proved itself the far better team.
It started with DeMar DeRozan. He scored 31 points on 13-for-21 shooting and added four assists for good measure. Even with Aaron Gordon draping him and doing a decent job contesting shots for much of the night, DeRozan just went to town on the Magic time and time again.The Raptors defense did the rest of the work. The Magic’s shooting was bad, but the Raptors defense made it even worse than that. This was Toronto playing at its best.
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Raptors wipe out the Magic, win 109-79 – Raptors HQ
The best progression for the Raptors, though, wasn’t the play of their three stars — it was the improvement of their team defense. Without the services of Cory Joseph, the Raptors were able to dig in with a lineup of Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Terrence Ross, Patrick Patterson, and Valanciunas to start the second. They would go on a 10-2 run to eventually tie the game. VanVleet, after a couple of painful offensive trips, played well in his most meaningful Raptors appearance. Most memorably, he had this steal-save-assist combo.
After allowing 30 in the first, the Raptors limited the Magic to 21, 13, and 15 in the three successive quarters. While you come away from that feeling good about progression, it was also readily apparent how limited Orlando is scoring the ball. They went long stretches where Fournier looked like the only player capable of driving productively. Magic coach Frank Vogel pulled his starters early in the fourth, but ironically had Jeff Green setting up the offense multiple times. Green was a horrendous 1-for-7 and finished a team-worst -27.
And that’s how we come around to our old pal Biz. Locked in this weird mess of a Magic roster, it was nice to see the flashes of what he brought to Toronto last season.
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Biyombo’s Magic no match for Raptors | Toronto Star
Two of the Raptors that Biyombo was closest to — DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry — did the most damage to his new team on Sunday.
DeRozan had 20 points in the first half and finished with 31 despite watching the entire fourth quarter from the bench, while Lowry had 16 points and 10 assists.
Jonas Valanciunas added 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Raptors, who gave up 30 points in the first quarter but only 49 the rest of the way.
“I thought that was a good bounce-back for us after our lacklustre defensive game against Atlanta, but that’s the way we have to play,” Casey said. “If we’re going to be important or relevant in this league, we have to play with that defensive intensity every night.”
