No DeMar, no problem for the Raptors

DeMar DeRozan was out, Fred VanVleet was out but the Raptors still pulled out a 93-86 win in Orlando. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

Kyle Lowry returned to the roster and earned a team-high 25 points (including seven 3-pointers), but other than the All-Star, the Raptors’ offence struggled; scoring only 93 points, the least they’ve tallied in 24 games.

After a 16-point 3rd quarter, Toronto entered the final 12 minutes down 76-68.

And that’s when they locked down on defence — allowing only 10 Magic points in the fourth.

And it wasn’t the starting five that put the clamps on in the defensive end. It wasn’t even the regular duo of Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl who usually have themselves a block party above the rim. The line-up that clicked tonight included Lorenzo Brown and Lucas Nogueira; two players who are averaging less than 10 minutes per game.

Tuesday night they played over 17 minutes each — and for good reason.

The Raptors’ second string — Nogueira, Brown, Wright, Siakam (and a bonus of starting PG Lowry) — simply put pressure on Orlando, forcing the Magic to miss their first 11 shots and commit four turnovers in the fourth quarter, which opened the door for a Raptors comeback. In fact, Orlando went without a field goal for seven minutes in the final quarter.

After making just a single field goal in the first five minutes of the period, an off-balance jumper from Brown started a 12-0 run which ended with a Siakam corner 3-pointer and an 84-78 lead.

The Raptors have a game Wednesday night against the Cavs, who haven’t played since Monday night where Lebron James led his team in points, assists and rebounds. And the Raps’ stars will log big minutes until their top spot in clinched in the East. Wednesday’s game will be a marquee match-up between the number one and number three team in the Eastern Conference — it’s a big deal.

Although they won (very sloppily) against Orlando tonight, they’ll need a well-rested DeRozan and VanVleet back tomorrow to take on a Cavaliers squad with revenge on their mind after a 133-99 thumping from the Raptors in January.

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