The Toronto Raptors are soaring after notching the largest margin of victory in the franchise’s playoff history. The Raptors look to follow up the 29-point triumph with another solid performance when they visit the Orlando Magic on Friday in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference first-round series.
Second-seeded Toronto dropped the series opener to the seventh-seeded Magic but restored order in Game 2 with the dominating 111-82 victory as All-Star small forward Kawhi Leonard poured in 37 points. “He was just in a groove, getting downhill, getting to his spots,” point guard Kyle Lowry told reporters of Leonard. “He’s a player who knows where he wants to be on the floor and when he gets to those spots, he’s pretty tough to guard.” Orlando will be looking to ride the momentum of the crowd as it plays a home playoff game for the first time since 2012 after winning its final nine regular-season contests at the Amway Center. “Amway is going to be beautiful, it will be rocking, and it will be louder than it’s been in seven years,” Magic power forward Aaron Gordon told reporters. “It’s going to be beautiful having the whole city of Orlando behind us and we’ll feed off that crowd. We like that energy.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN, Sportsnet (Toronto), FS Florida (Orlando)
LINE: Raptors -5.5
ABOUT THE RAPTORS: Lowry rebounded from a scoreless effort in Game 1 to score 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting in the Game 2 rout. “He did a great job of bouncing back,” Leonard told reporters. “He’s a pro. That’s what pros do, they know it’s just one game and they come in the next game ready to play.” Leonard averaged 31 points in the two games in Toronto and power forward Pascal Siakam also stood out with averages of 21.5 points and 9.5 rebounds.
ABOUT THE MAGIC: All-Star center Nikola Vucevic has been a major disappointment thus far by averaging 8.5 points on 6-of-21 shooting and seven rebounds per game. “They did a good job taking away a lot of the stuff, a lot of my strengths, and I just have to figure it out a way to be more aggressive and be more efficient offensively,” Vucevic told reporters. “… I expected them to have a big focus on me, so I just have to look at the tape and see what I can do better.” Point guard D.J. Augustin, who scored 25 points and made the game-winning 3-pointer in Game 1, had just nine points on 1-of-6 shooting in Game 2.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Magic won 13 of their final 14 regular-season home games.
2. Toronto backup G Patrick McCaw (thumb) is expected to be available for Game 3.
3. Orlando SG Evan Fournier is just 11-of-30 shooting while averaging 13 points in the series.
OTL PICK: Raptors -5 over Magic