Big night for Ryan Anderson as Orlando Magic stroll past Toronto Raptors 117 – 101 – NBA Recap
The Orlando Magic defeated the Toronto Raptors 117 – 101 on Monday. The Magic were the stronger team throughout the game and didn’t give the Raptors many chances of edging them out in the encounter at the Air Canada Centre.
Ryan Anderson was hot for the Magic and he piled on a game high 28 points along with 6 rebounds. Anderson pointed to his teammates as the reason for his success.
"I had a lot of open looks, I think everybody did a good job of finding me. Dwight caused a lot of attention in the paint which led to some open shots for everybody. We started the game off rolling and made a ton of threes and hit some open shots and we
really moved the ball tonight."
Super star centre Dwight Howard did his bit, racking up another double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds. More importantly, it was Howard’s inside presence that disrupted the Raptors.
"Dwight was dominant inside and they were leaving Ryan open on the perimeter so it was pretty easy to get shots," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said.
Jameer Nelson was also impressive for Orlando, scoring 18 points and dishing out 7 assists.
Gary Forbes was the top scorer for Toronto Raptors. He netted 21 points while Jose Calderon had 9 with 11 assists. Linas Kleiza was impressive as well, coming off the bench for 18 points.
Orlando were on the front foot early, starting the game with a 10 – 0 burst. Soon they had stretched the lead to 24 – 8, taking complete control. Raptors however ended the first quarter with a 15 – 2 sprint, meaning that they cut the gap down to 28 – 26.
Toronto’s revival though was short lived as the Magic pummelled them in the second segment. The Raptors didn’t fire on offence and Orlando piled on 33 points; at the end of the first half they were leading 61 – 49.
Things got even worse for the home side after the interval. The Magic continued to increase their lead as the Raptors looked helpless to resist. At the end of the 3rd frame, Orlando were leading by a massive 20 point margin, 93 – 73.
Both teams knew the game was already over, and just went through the motions in the final period. At the end, the Raptors were happy to go off the court down by 117 – 101.
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