Somewhere between the naming of Nick Nurse as new head coach, the acquisition of Kawhi Leonard and the deal that brought Marc Gasol to Toronto, the Raptors solved their closeout problems.
Leonard led all scorers, but it was Kyle Lowry who got this close-out gem started in style scoring the first nine points as he relentlessly attacked the Orlando basket. When he wasn’t scoring, he was putting Orlando’s bigs in foul trouble as both Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon played limited minutes in the first half, each getting to the three-foul threshold far too early for head coach Steve Clifford’s liking.
The Raptors defence, which has been operating at peak efficiency through the previous three wins, continued that but on this night was joined by peak offence as well. Lowry returned in the second half and played nine more minutes before Nurse brought his night to an early end, as much to protect him as anything else.D.J. Augustin, who opened this series with a 25-point, out-of-no-where performance to lead the Magic to its only win finished up the series with a game-high 15 points for the visitors.
Somehow, some way Augustin got loose in Game 1 for those 25 points. Besides brief spurts from Gordon and Terrence Ross, there was not another offensive threat that scared any member of the Raptors over the remaining four games.To start with, the defensive promise that the roster has had since Day 1 of the season and which was only amplified with the trade deadline acquisition of Marc Gasol finally showed itself in a consistent fashion.