Toronto Raptors vs Orlando Magic Feb.20/08

TORONTO (AP) - Chris Bosh paused for effect to straighten his tie in the reflection of a T.V. camera lens in the post-game dressing room Wednesday.

The Toronto all-star was feeling pretty good about himself, and deservedly so. Bosh scored 40 points on a near-perfect shooting night, and the Raptors kick-started the unofficial second half of their season with a 127-110 victory over the Orlando Magic.

"I think it's very important, we have to set the tone for the rest of this year," Bosh said on the win. "It's going to be a big year for us I think, we're in a position to do some good things, we can sneak up on a lot of people, we're trying to play at home in the playoffs."

Carlos Delfino added 23 points, while Jose Calderon had 19 points and 13 assists for Toronto (29-23), in the team's first game back following last weekend's NBA all-star showcase in New Orleans.

Recharged from the all-star break and playing their first game in a week, the Raptors led for most of the night and were up by as much as 21 points before taking a 102-82 lead into the fourth quarter in front of a sellout crowd of 19,800 at the Air Canada Centre.

"It was a really important game for us, after one week without basketball games, so everybody was even more concentrated today from the beginning," Calderon said. "Everybody played really good basketball today."

The Raptors sputtered to start the fourth, allowing the Magic within 10 points with 4:31 left when Rashard Lewis drove through several Raptors for a huge dunk. But Calderon drained two straight threes, and then Jamario Moon took flight for a huge alley-oop dunk from Calderon, and the Raptors were up by 16 points with three minutes left.

On Toronto's next possession, Calderon found Moon alone under the basket with a court-long pass, and the Raptors rookie threw down another huge slam dunk to punctuate an entertaining night at the ACC.

Dwight Howard scored 37 points to lead the Magic (34-22), whose 20 wins on the road this season tops the NBA.

The game was an all-star matchup between Bosh and Howard, who teamed up as starters for the Eastern Conference team in Sunday's all-star game, and battled hard all night Wednesday. Howard, this year's slam dunk winner, had several monstrous dunks, but Bosh had the hot hand. The Raptor captain shot a sizzling 14-for-16 from the field and a perfect 11-for-11 from the free-throw line.

"It's always like that, he's a beast inside, and I know I have to bring my 'A' game, and he knows he has to do the same thing," Bosh said. "It's all fun competition, because I don't want to hear it from him in the summer and he doesn't want to hear it from me."

Bosh didn't exactly spend the weekend with his feet up either it was a busy three days of all-star appearances in New Orleans culminating in Sunday's game. The 6-10 forward said he also squeezed in some time to work on his shooting.

"I was able to fine-tune some things, do a little house cleaning, and it's worked out," Bosh said.

Afterwards, frustrated Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said that his team had no-one that could stop either Bosh or Calderon.

"It's got to be like that every day, I want to hear that every day from every coach," Bosh said. "We have to continue to play off each other. Jose, he's going to move the ball, put the ball in the right spots, and you sag off of him, he's going to make shots."

Moon finished with 17 points and a team-high 12 rebounds, while Anthony Parker added 10, and the Raptors shot a red-hot 59 per cent from the field.

Hedo Turkoglu and Lewis scored 16 points apiece for the Magic, who shot 45 per cent on the night.

"They hit a lot of shots tonight," Howard said of Toronto. "When a team is shooting the ball the way they did tonight you just have to come back on offence and try and do something. They were on fire tonight."

The game marked the return of Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell after he missed two due to the death of his father-in-law.

Category:

Sports

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• Toronto
• Raptors
• vs
• Orlando
• Magic
• Feb.20/08

[23defr]

calderon rules

[BeNicePlz]

THIS WAS A SICK GAME.

[dwinsome64]

Again Bosh shits on howard 3:56

[dwinsome64]

Chris just shited on howard 3:03



[negativekind]

what was the end result? Olrando in the finals. Whats going on this season? who stands the BEST in the preseason??

[L3g3nd4ryb4113r]

Dude bosh's jumpshot is sooo smooth

[eafanboyssuck]

and am i wrong 4 months ago? lmao who takes over games? who makes the clutch shots?

[eafanboyssuck]

no.. that doesn't prove anything. FFS even willie green can get 50 points, and eddie house? he got like 70 in college, can they take over games?

[freesuraj]

so 41 points, 14 boards, 4 asts in ECF game 6 ain't taking over ? ha ?

[Haysh333]

I miss chuck!

[IdmanIsmahan]

raps

hhh

[eafanboyssuck]

yes, but howard isnt a superstar. he cant take over games. hedo does