The Toronto Raptors started and finished strong against the Orlando Magic in a 97-86 victory on Sunday afternoon at the Air Canada Centre.
Led by a 20-point performance by DeMar DeRozan and an 18-assist afternoon from Jose Calderon (matching the total team-assist output from the Magic), the Raptors were able to shake off the ugliness of a blowout loss to the Celtics a day earlier before they head out on a three-game road trip.
While Calderon and DeRozan had the highlight stat lines, Toronto weathered a third-quarter collapse thanks to impressive fourth-quarter performances from reserves Amir Johnson and Linas Kleiza. After getting outscored 28-18 in the third and going into the fourth trailing by two, the Raptors picked up the intensity and steadily pulled away from a Magic team that was missing J.J. Redick who missed the game due to illness.
Toronto outscored Orlando 30-17 in the fourth as the Magic fell apart offensively, shooting just 5-for-19 from the floor. Amir Johnson matched the Magic’s made field goals tally, making all five of his attempts in the quarter as he scored 14 of 15 points in the fourth. The Johnson/Kleiza duo off the bench combined to score 27 points on 10-for-15 field goals while adding 10 rebounds between the two.
The Positives
* Jose Calderon: Regardless of the situation, Calderon manages to adjust his game and give the team his best each and every night. While many thought he’d be the first to be moved after the acquisition of Kyle Lowry, it is quite terrifying to imagine where this team would be without him in the absence of Lowry. After picking up his first career triple-double against the Pacers and coming up empty against Rajon Rondo on Saturday, Calderon did his best Rondo impersonation on Sunday, dishing a season-high 18 assists with only two turnovers. He also scored nine points and added a steal and a blocked shot in his 42 minutes.
* DeRozan on the glass: Since the season started, DeMar DeRozan talked about wanting to expand his game and be more than just a scorer. 10 games into the 2012-2013 season, we’re seeing a much different player than only a few months ago. DeRozan led the team in rebounding on Sunday afternoon, hauling down nine boards to go with his 20 points. He shot the ball well, making eight of his 16 attempts and connected on one of his two three-point attempts. If he can consistently hit that corner three-pointer for the team, it’ll open the floor and provide a real boost, offensively. In the first quarter, he had a pass to Dominic McGuire in transition that was one of the better passes DeRozan has ever made in a Raptors uniform. The game is slowing down, the growth curve is accelerating and it’s been enjoyable to watch.
* Andrea’s strong start: There hasn’t been a lot of positive surrounding Andrea Bargnani’s start to this season. He finally had a strong start against the Magic, looking engaged, energetic and actually attacking the basket. After the game, Dwane Casey talked about the importance of Bargnani coming out strong because, as he said, offensively the team goes as Bargnani goes. While Bargnani was active offensively, he was aggressive defensively as well, grabbing five rebounds and blocking two shots in 39 minutes.
The Negatives
* Third-quarter collapse: The Raptors have yet to put together a full 48 minutes of basketball this season. While they corrected the slow start that bit them in Saturday’s game against the Celtics, they were unable to build on an eight-point halftime lead. Coming out flat in the third, they were outscored by 10 and instead of giving themselves a cushion in the fourth, had a two-point deficit.
* Free-throw shooting: Coming into the game sixth in the league, shooting 79 per cent from the line, the Raptors have had a disastrous weekend at the stripe. Against the Celtics, they shot 68 per cent, making just 21 of their 31 attempts, and against the Magic, they were even worse. Making 14 of their 23 attempts (61 per cent), is not good enough for a team that is going to find themselves in a lot of close games this season. Jonas Valanciunas, coming into the game shooting 93 per cent from the line on the season, missed four free throws on Sunday and said after the game that he didn’t think it was an issue of fatigue. If it isn’t fatigue, it’s focus and it is controllable. This is a team that needs to take care of all of the variables they can control.
* Jose Calderon’s minutes: Casey has mentioned often the importance of managing Calderon’s minutes in the absence of Lowry. Against the Magic he played nearly 43 minutes. It’s a challenge to figure out solutions when Lowry is unavailable and John Lucas III is more of a scorer than a point guard, but the team will need to figure out ways to keep him under 40 minutes a game.
Postgame notes
* The Raptors took care of the ball against the Magic, committing just 10 turnovers.
* Surprised to see Johnson take (and make) that three-pointer in the fourth quarter? Just the fifth three of his eight-year career, Casey joked that he wanted to pull out “what little hair I have left” when Johnson took the shot, but then said that Johnson had worked on it all summer with Tim Grgurich.
* Johnson on his three-pointer: “Jose Calderon is probably the only person that would actually pass me the ball on the three-point line. The one thing about that shot is I didn’t hesitate. I just caught it and shot the ball. All summer I’ve been working on that shot. As long as I catch it and shoot it, it has a chance to go in.”
* DeRozan has had five or more rebounds in seven of the first 10 games this season.
* Casey spoke about the job Johnson and Kleiza did off of the bench against the Magic and said once again how important it is for this team to focus on their defence: “The bench stepped in. Linas did a good job. Again, I thought we established ourselves defensively which allowed us to keep pace and run the floor. If we are not a defensive team, we have to hang our hat on something. That is going to be our focus from here on out. That allows us to keep pace in the game. It ignites our fast break. The easiest way to run is to get stops.”
