Raptors rest some stars, down Magic in final home game of record-setting season

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A Toronto Raptors squad resting DeMar DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas finished its final home stand of the regular season on Sunday with a club-record 34th home victory in what has become one of the NBA’s most intimidating venues.

The Raptors improved to a franchise-record 58-22 with a 112-101 win over the Orlando Magic at Air Canada Centre. Their 34-7 home record ties them with the Houston Rockets for the best home record in the league this season and sets the stage for the top-seeded Raps to enjoy home-court advantage in the playoffs, which start next weekend.

C.J. Miles led the Raptors with 22 points Sunday – including five three-pointers – which is a positive for a shooter who had struggled recently. Rookie OG Anunoby had his most productive game yet in a Toronto uniform, scoring 21 and contributing seven rebounds. He also hit five from deep.

“We’re just trying to get guys in the right frame, the right rhythm going into next week,” said Toronto coach Dwane Casey, pleased with the output from those two especially.

On Friday night, Casey had called the idea of resting players in the last few regular season games “bull crap,” adding that “we can’t think rest, we’ve got to think rhythm.”

Yet the Raps chose to sit both DeRozan and Valanciunas on Sunday. Norman Powell started for DeRozan, while Lucas Nogueira began in place of Valanciunas. The Raptors had hoped to keep their bench unit intact rather than plucking out one or two players to start the game.

Powell, who has had a season full of obstacles, suffered a scary-looking ankle injury early in the game and left the floor. It turned out to be minor, and he returned to contribute 13 points, including a trio of three-pointers, along with four assists and five rebounds.

Nogueira left the game early with hamstring tightness – not to return – after he’d contributed four points, an assist and two rebounds in a fleeting six-minute stint. Fred VanVleet left the game with back tightness, but Casey later said he could have returned if the team had needed him.

Despite it being fan-appreciation day inside the usually-bellowing ACC, Sunday’s atmosphere was comparably low-energy. The Raps had already secured the club’s first top playoff seed in the Eastern Conference two nights earlier, and they were getting a meaningless visit from the Magic, a 14th-place squad eliminated from the postseason ages ago. Fans were saving their excitement for next weekend’s Game 1 when it will be deafening inside the ACC as the Raps play host to one of Milwaukee, Miami or Washington.

“One of the things we came into the season saying is, we wanted to make this place a special place to play, a tough place to play. I think we’ve done that,” Casey said. “The guys have done that. For whatever reason, they’re fired up with our fans … we feel like we have an excellent home-court advantage with our fans.”

There was a video tribute to Air Canada on its final regular-season Raptors game as the building’s title sponsor. Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, seated courtside in a Raptors sweater, received moderate applause. Delon Wright addressed the fans with some brief – very brief – words of gratitude.

It also offered a chance to check in on some popular ex-Raptors who now play for Orlando: Bismack Biyombo (seven points on Sunday) and Terrence Ross (three points).

It was the third successive win for the Raptors. They’ll now conclude the regular season with two road games, Monday in Detroit and Wednesday in Miami. Winning both would give the Raps an NBA rarity: 60 victories.

“You want to accomplish that. It’s not the end all, be all. We’d like to accomplish it but not at the expense of overplaying players,” Casey said. “There are very few times in your organizations’ history that you have the opportunity to win 60. It’s kind of a good mark to have along with winning your conference.”