Raptors 108 – Philadelphia 76ers 95: Lowry’s happy return

The Raptors need to defeat inferior teams to prevent a tumble down the standings in the tight Eastern Conference. A victory against the sad-sack 76ers was essential.

Kyle Lowry, a Philadelphia native, came back to his birthplace with his Toronto Raptors in tow, and winning on his mind. Although the Raptors suffered another ghastly start to this game, the determined point guard wasn’t surrendering. Toronto rode a strong close to Q2 to a solid road win.

The Raptors have given their fans heartburn all year with their sluggish play following the opening tip, but never as dismally as this night. Toronto was almost half through Q1 before Lowry scored their first bucket, after Philly had potted six for a 12-0 lead. Remarkably, the offense got off the mat, and even took a brief lead before ending the quarter down one. Terrence Ross had nine points, as his mid-range jumper was splashing.

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The game was won for the Raptors during the last 6+ minutes of Q2, when Toronto left Philly in the dust with a 23-6 run. DeMar DeRozan enjoyed a pair of highlight reel buckets back to back, one a power jam after leaving Nik Staukas in the dust, then a reverse alley-oop off a fine feed from Lowry.

Toronto’s offense once again disappeared, this time going pointless for more than 5 minutes bracketing the end of Q3 and the start of Q4. Philly wasn’t folding and, led by Ish Smith, a tiny guard who led all scorers with 28, sneaked back to within four. Once again it was Lowry who ended the drought. While the 76ers were scoring basket for basket with the Raptors for much of Q4, they were never close again. A Patrick Patterson 3-ball, one of his team-leading three, was the dagger. The lead was 14 with less than 4 minutes to play, and the Raptors weren’t winded thereafter.

Lowry ended with 25, and DeMar scored 19. They had a lot of help. Jonas Valanciunas was undeterred by battling with Rookie of the Year candidate Jahlil Okafor. Our centre scored 17 efficient points, needing only 10 shots. Okafor was a load early, but had a mere 3 points after intermission to finish with 19. Ross enjoyed his best game in a while, with 16, which included five regular field goals. He needs more of those if he’s going to get the spacing he needs to fire away from distance, so this game was highly positive. 2-Pat chipped in 11.

While the Raptors weren’t blocking every other shot (or so it seemed) like they did in Washington, 7 rejections were more than respectable. Bismack Biyombo had a pair. There’s probably a blocks per minutes played stat somewhere, which I’d wager he leads in.

I had thought Philly was improving as a team, but I’m not so sure after seeing this game. Three of their starters had one basket each. We knew DeMar would punish the overmatched Nik Stauskas, so why didn’t Nik get the rim protection he needed? The 76ers have added smart people like Jerry Colangelo and Mike D’Antoni to accelerate the team’s return to relevance. Are the players listening?

Next: DeMarre Carroll is gone for 6 weeks - now what?

The Raptors now undertake the longest leg of this extended road trip, a hop across the pond. They face the Orlando Magic in London (the big one, not our Ontario pipsqueak) on January 14. After that, they settle in for a seven-game homestand, starting January 18.