Game Rap: Raptors 87, Magic 92

Holly MacKenzie - Raptors.com

Cory Joseph was called for a clear path foul against Victor Oladipo with two seconds remaining and the Raptors trailing by one. Oladipo made two free throws to make it a three-point game. On the next possession, DeMarre Carroll fouled Evan Fournier who made two more free throws to give the Magic a 92-87 victory and the Raptors their first loss of the season.

The Raptors had an abysmal shooting performance in the first half as the team shot just 23 percent, scoring 15 points in the first quarter and 36 for the half.

DeMar DeRozan was scoreless on the floor in two attempts in the first half, but came alive in the second half to finish with 23 points on 7-for-15 field goals while shooting 9-for-12 from the line to go with seven rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots. DeRozan scored 15 of his 23 in the third quarter, shooting 5-for-7 from the floor as the Raptors quickly bounced back from a nine-point halftime deficit.

Cory Joseph had his best game in a Raptors uniform, scoring 19 points in 29 minutes off the bench. Joseph made seven of his nine field goal attempts and shot 5-for-6 from the free throw line. As the games go on, Joseph is proving to be a steadying force with the second unit, but also playing alongside the starters helping to take pressure off Kyle Lowry.

“One loss is not going to define us. Being 6-0 is not going to define us either.”- DeMar DeRozan on the loss and failing to move to 6-0 on the season

5… Just five made three-pointers for the Raptors on 23 attempts (22 percent), compared to nine three-pointers for the Magic on 25 attempts (36 percent).13… Toronto assisted on just 13 of their 30 field goals while the Magic recorded assists on 22 of 33 field goals.10… Toronto had nine turnovers, and only two coming in the second half after a sloppy first half that saw the team have just three more made field goals than turnovers.14… Rebounds for Jonas Valanciunas, despite being limited to 23 minutes in the game and six minutes in the first half because of early foul trouble.12… Free throw attempts for DeMar DeRozan. In six games this season, DeRozan is averaging 11 trips to the line per game.

“We came out with a tremendous amount of energy. When you’re 5–0, teams are going to come out going. When you start out 15 points in the first quarter... And then we used so much energy in the third quarter to get back in the game. We kind of ran out of gas again. But, again it’s our starts. We’ve got to come out and play with force on the offensive end. Not only the start, throughout the game. They had us on our heels the entire time offensively, and that’s a credit to their defence.”- Dwane Casey on the slow start affecting the Raptors late

“We played. We had fun. We got our energy up. We got more aggressive defensively. We matched their intensity and we did our job.”- Kyle Lowry on how the Raptors came out to start the second half“We came out slow, trying to let the game come to us. That’s something that coaches will be on us about. Understanding we can’t start games like that. We’re a winning team [now]. Teams are going to be going after us. Good thing that it’s early. We can learn from it and try to get another one back on Sunday.”- DeMar DeRozan on needing to stop the slow starts“I should have shot the ball. I am putting that on me. I just watched it a few times and I should have shot the ball. It is my fault. I was in a position that it was such a scramble play and I kind of wanted to slow it down and I threw it to J.V. in the paint, even he wanted to hand it back off to me and I trusted him to make a play and I should have shot the ball.”- Kyle Lowry on the Raptors’ final possession “I was just trying to be a spark. I felt like tonight I needed to be aggressive and score the ball a little more because we were struggling to score a little bit.”- Cory Joseph on being aggressive offensively

The Raptors will try to finish out their four-game road trip with a win in Miami against the Heat on Sunday at 6 P.M. ET.