Magic 92 Raptors 88
TORONTO — Orlando big man Dwight Howard had the ball early and often Monday night, but it was teammate J.J. Redick who sealed Toronto’s fate in the game’s final seconds.
Redick’s three-point dagger with less than 10 seconds helped the Magic to a 92-88 win over the Toronto Raptors.
“(Jason Richardson) made a great play to get the ball quickly to me,” said Redick. “I knew we didn’t have a lot of time on the clock, so I just caught it and let it go.”
Howard had 36 points and 13 rebounds and two blocks for his 31st double-double.
Howard had the highlight of the night when he finished off a perfectly-timed alley-oop pass from Redick with a monster two-handed jam in the third quarter.
Redick finished 3-for-4 from three-point range picking up 13 points and six assists.
“Our perimeter guys all shot the ball very poorly tonight,” said Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy.
“Trying to decide who you’re going to have down there as the last man wasn’t an easy call, but (Redick) knocked in a big one right then.”
DeMar DeRozan had 23 points for the Raptors (12-26), who were coming off a victory over Golden State on Sunday.
“It’s definitely frustrating, especially knowing how many games we had like that this season that we definitely could’ve won,” said DeRozan.
“We just got to close out teams especially against tough teams like the Orlando Magic.”
The loss dropped the Raptors to 0-9 at home this season when trailing after three quarters.
Aaron Gray added 11 points and 11 rebounds for Toronto, picking up his second double-double of the season.
Ryan Anderson had 19 points and 13 boards for the Magic (25-14).
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 Redick made two free throws on the next possession to put the Magic back up by four.
“I feel for our guys because they’re putting themselves in a position to win,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. “The experience factor, you can’t rush it, you can’t teach it, you can’t give it to them.
“I see fight every night.”
Ex-Raptor Hedo Turkoglu, 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. Turkoglu finished with no points and nine assists.