The Toronto Raptors defeated Orlando Magic, 113-97, to reach the 10th win of the season. Nick Nurse and his guys didn’t have any problems against the guests from Florida, mostly because of Orlando’s issues with injuries.
Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon had to leave the game, both for picking up injuries early on. Vucevic, the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, sprained his ankle midway through the second, while Gordon, did the same only during the early part of the same.
That would prove out to be the setback from which the guests couldn’t recover.
The Magic had an 8-point lead in the first, but the Raptors came after them early on in the second. I no time, the hosts made a 13-2 run, leaving the rivals behind. After that came all those injuries, and the morale of the Magic was pretty low.
But Toronto didn’t use that but instead allowed for the Magic to be alive. Nurse’s team couldn’t make one more push to close the match, and the difference was between 5 and 10 points, but nothing more than that.
The Raptors became more serious as the third quarter went by, and they began pounding hard at the start of the fourth. Following Fred VanVleet’s basket, they’ve reached an 87-70lead and finally managed to take down the beaten opponent.
“His finishing, his layup package is insane,” Pascal Siakam told the journalists about VanVleet. “He’s fast, crafty. He always knows how to kind of use his body. So it’s definitely impressive what he’s been able to do. He’s just playing at a very high level right now.”
The Raptors’ point guard finished the night with 24 points, 7 assists, shooting 10 for 19 from the floor.
The next best scorer was the undrafted rookie Terence Davis, who had 19 points, 8 boards, and 5 assists.
“It’s two games in a row the guy’s checked in (and) just started nailing threes, just right off the bench, and gave our offense a big boost, and they’ve been momentum changes I think in both games,” Nick Nurse said about the youngster, who was a massive boost to Raptors exhausted crew.
Norman Powell was at his usual level, with 15 points, and 7 for 11 from the field. Chris Boucher scored 14 with 11 boards. Toronto outscored Orlando 68-40 in the paint.
On the other side, Evan Fournier delivered 21 points, Jonathan Isaac had 16 with 13 boards, while Markelle Fultz scored 12. Terrence Ross added 14 off the bench, while Khem Birch posted 12.
Both teams were pretty bad from downtown, with Orlando hitting 9 times on 32 attempts, while Toronto had the same number of made threes, only after 27 shots.
The NBA champions (10-4) are still undefeated at home and have six wins so far. They meet with the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, and after that, have two contests at Scotiabank Arena. The 76ers come to town on Monday, and two days later, the sorry New York Knicks visit Canada. As for the Magic (6-8), this was the first of four consecutive games on the road. They now travel to Indianapolis, after that to Detroit and Cleveland.
