Terrence Ross returns to haunt Toronto Raptors as Orlando Magic claim valuable win
Monday 25 February 2019 06:32, UK
Terrence Ross returned to haunt his former team as he scored 28 points to help the Orlando Magic to a surprise 113-98 win over the high-flying Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
Ross, who once drained 51 points in a game for Toronto, added nine rebounds to his tally against a sluggish Raptors team that was without the rested Kawhi Leonard.
Nikola Vucevic contributed 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Magic, who have won two of three games against Toronto this season and ended the Raptors seven-game winning streak.
The win, which was Orlando's sixth in seven games, pulled the Magic (28-33) to within one game of the Charlotte Hornets, who occupy the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The Raptors (44-17) remain second in the East, now two games back from the Milwaukee Bucks.
Jonathan Isaac added 16 points for the Magic while D.J. Augustin added 12 points and eight assists and Evan Fournier scored 11.
The Raptors got 19 points and 10 assists from Kyle Lowry, while and Pascal Siakam had 10 points and 11 rebounds.
"So that part I don't like," Lowry said of Ross' performance. "Him being a friend of mine, it's good to see him playing the way he's playing. He's always been a talented player. This is just him getting older. More experience is just going to make him get better at basketball."
Marc Gasol added 16 points and Serge Ibaka had 14 points for the Raptors while Jodie Meeks and Danny Green each had 10.
The Magic led by nine points entering the fourth quarter and Ross scored five points in the first two minutes to stretch the lead to 12, before Aaron Gordon's fadeaway jumper with 7:20 left moved it to 14.
Vucevic and Isaac then hit consecutive three-pointers to increase the lead to 16 points with 5:22 remaining and another Isaac long-ranger had the lead at 20 with three minutes to play and they saw the game home from there.
Earlier, the Magic scored the final eight points of the first quarter to lead 25-15 before Jerian Grant's layup after a Raptors turnover gave the Magic a 12-point lead with 8:18 left in the first half.
The Raptors rallied though and Meeks, signed by the Raptors last week, cut the lead to one point with a three-pointer with 4:04 remaining. The Magic led 53-50 at halftime.
Lowry then turned the ball over twice in the first three minutes of the second half to allow the Magic to open up a 10-point gap once again, only for Toronto to use a 10-0 run - completed by Gasol's three-pointer and lay-up - to tie the game with 7:05 left in the third.
But the Magic used a 12-2 run, capped by Gordon's two free throws, to lead by 11 before finishing the third quarter with an 80-71 advantage.
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