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Even with Kyle Lowry resting, Raptors crush Nets

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BROOKLYN, N.Y.

BROOKLYN — Dwane Casey has always said he would adjust accordingly when he felt the wear and tear on his stars was becoming too much.

Last night was the first of those nights.

It likely won’t be the last.

Kyle Lowry, some were whispering rather reluctantly, was told he was taking the night off to rest his bumps and bruises given that the Raptors were going to be playing on consecutive nights.

Casey joked after the game that by making that decision he probably got in his point guard’s bad books.

For a half it looked like the decision might prove to be a costly one in the win column.

But then, just like last week in Toronto, (although that was with Lowry) the Raptors pulled away leaving no doubt who the second best team in the East is and who the 15th best team is pulling away for a 119-109 win giving the Raptors a franchise mark for wins at the halfway point with 28.

“DeMar DeRozan kind of got us going in the second half,” Casey said. “ I thought Pascal Siakam came in and changed the game with his energy and focus on the defensive end. That’s what these games are about sometimes, they’re hard mentally to get prepared for, get ready for. You look at a young, talented team like Brooklyn and you look at their record and you kind of say ‘OK.’ No, we can’t play with fire like that but again our guys found a way but we’ve got to be better.”

This was no walk in the park, particularly without Lowry to lean on.

It didn’t help matters when the team lost starter Lucas Nogueira midway through the first quarter after he took an elbow in his left eye and went back to the locker room to undergo concussion protocol.

Add in the fact that Patrick Patterson was sitting out his seventh game in the past nine with a knee injury and the Raptors were somewhat thin.

Through a half the rebuilding Nets were giving the short-handed Raps everything they could handle.

Brook Lopez was back to being the Brook Lopez when he was surrounded by Joe Johnson and Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.

Also not helping matters was the fact that without Lowry in the lineup, DeRozan was being double and triple-teamed at times and while he was getting to the line with regularity, the added attention was playing havoc with his shooting percentage.

Through a half he was just 3-for-14 from the field. Neither Jonas Valanciunas nor Norm Powell even managed to score in the first half despite playing almost 27 minutes combined.

DeRozan would ended up with 36 points despite the added attention but not without that big second half.

“I just kept playing the same way, getting good looks and going out there and doing what I do,” DeRozan said. “I knew it was going to come. Just a matter of being patient and not really worrying about the misses. Just be more aggressive, try to get rebounds, try to get easier stuff for me and my teammates in transition.”

Even with the early struggles, the Raps were only down by three at the half due in large part to Cory Joseph, who already had a season high 18 through two quarters and Terrence Ross, who was his normal productive self off the bench.

Nogueira eventually was ruled out for the night following halftime opening the door for Siakam who has been a bit of a forgotten man since Casey went the tandem of Jonas Valanciunas and Nogueira as his starting bigs.

All Siakam did was come in and provide the kind of energy the Raptors dearly needed. It didn’t result in a ton of points on his resume — Siakam is still a little of an unfinished product when it comes to finishing around the rim — but he did have a pair of blocks, a steal and generally was disruptive enough to help swing the game in the Raptors favour. He played all 12 minutes and came out a plus-10 for the quarter.

But playing the role of Lowry and doing it very nicely without the aid of Lowry’s silky three-pointer was Joseph, who went off for a career high 33 points ,making 15-of-22 shots in just over 37 minutes.

Joseph, who is normally far more concerned with his defence and setting up his teammates showed early on this was going to be a night where he knew he was going to have to score.

“I feel like I’m a winner and I try to do whatever it takes for us to win,” Joseph explained. “

But even Joseph was a little surprised at the volume of shots he threw up.

“I took 22 shots? Really?” Joseph asked. “I don’t think I’ve every taken 20 in an NBA game before. As long as I shot a good percentage I’m OK with it.”

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