The always highly anticipated return of Vince Carter (this time in another new uniform) was put on hold this Sunday afternoon as he sprained his ankle the night before in a match up against his former team, the New Jersey Nets. With Vince unable to roll, and Rashard Lewis suspended for the first 10 games of the season for the use of an NBA banned substance, Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic got ready to face the Raptors in their second home game of this young season at the Air Canada Centre.
Shooting 54% from the field, 59% from 3, 74% from the free throw line, and scoring 116 total points usually results in a win, but on this occassion that did not hold true. The Raptors played poor perimeter defense, allowing Orlando to have wide open 3-point looks (32 in total, of which they converted 17). The Magic also came up with 11 steals vs. the Raptors’ 2. The Raptors tried to employ the ‘Hack-A-Howard’ strategy in playing the game of averages. Much to their chagrin, Dwight Howard had other plans and was determined to show that would not be his Kryptonite on this day by going 14-16 from the charity stripe.
In the end, the Raptors fell to 1-2 record on the season by way of this afternoon’s 125-116 loss to the Orlando Magic.
All Magic starters finished with double digit scoring (the 2nd time in as many games the Raptors have allowed this):
– J.J. Redick ended up with a career game: 27 points (5 of 8 from 3, and 6-7 from the line), 6 rebounds, and 5 assists.
– Rookie Ryan Anderson had a strong game putting up 20 points (5 of 8 from 3) and 6 rebounds.
– Dwight Howard posted a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds, while going an impressive 14-16 from the free throw line.
– Point guard Jameer Nelson went for 30 points (including going 5-9 from 3 and 9-10 from the line) and adding 5 assists.
– Matt Barnes nearly missed a double-double, scoring 12 points and grabbing 9 rebounds. But he was most impressive on the defensive end of the floor, accounting for 6 of Orlando’s 11 team steals.
Chris Bosh posted another monster game for Toronto with a STRONG double-double almost mirroring his effort from Friday night in Memphis, 35 points (10-20 from the field) and 16 boards. Andrea Bargnani caught fire late in the game going 4-5 from 3 ending up with 26 points shooting 8-12 from the field, and free agent acquisition Hedo Tukoglu dropped 19 points going 8-13 from the field.
Despite their individual efforts it wasn’t enough to overcome the lack of team defense or the ‘lights out’ shooting by the Orlando Magic.
In case you missed it, here are extended highlights of the game courtesy of the Raptors.com six minute video game recap:
[nba]teams/raptors/2009/11/01/ORLANDO091101-1112219[/nba]Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
