Howard’s double-double leads Magic over Raptors
Posted March 5, 2012 9:58 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Dwight Howard had 36 points and 13 rebounds Monday to lead the Orlando Magic over the Toronto Raptors 92-88.
DeMar DeRozan had 23 points for the Raptors (12-26), who were coming off a victory over Golden State on Sunday.
Aaron Gray added 11 points and 11 rebounds for Toronto.
Ryan Anderson had 19 points and 13 boards for the Magic (25-14).
JJ Redick’s 23-foot three-pointer with less than 10 seconds to go helped the Magic seal the win. He finished 3-for-4 from three-point range picking up 13 points and six assists.
Jose Calderon drained a three from the top of the arc with just over six seconds remaining to cut Orlando’s lead to two, but Reddick made two free throws on the next procession to put the Magic back up by four.
The highlight of the night came with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter as Howard finished off a perfectly-timed alley-oop pass from Redick with a monster two-handed jam.
Ex-Raptor Hedo Tukoglu, who came in averaging 11.6 points and 4.6 rebounds, was booed all night by the 15,392 in attendance at Air Canada Centre. Tukoglu finished with no points and nine assists.
After the Magic opened an eight point lead in the second quarter, DeRozan picked up six points to cut the lead to just two. However, Redick drained a 25-foot three-pointer giving Orlando a five-point lead at the break.
Howard had four dunks, many of the highlight variety, leading the way for the Magic in the first quarter with 10 points, giving Orlando the early three-point lead.
Orlando won the only other meeting between the two teams — 102-96 thanks to a late 16-0 run on New Year’s Day.
Notes: Amir Johnson missed Monday’s game with a sore right knee suffered in Sunday night’s win over Golden State. … Raptors continue their four-game home stand Wednesday when the Houston Rockets visit. … Monday’s game was just the tenth time in franchise history, and second time this season, the Raptors played back-to-back home games. Toronto lost to New York and San Antonio on consecutive nights in late January.
