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TORONTO — It's not quite as glamorous as a last-second, come-from-behind win over the Celtics in Boston, but they all count.
The Toronto Raptors did exactly what they needed to do in dispatching the visiting Milwaukee Bucks 106-75 at a sold-out Air Canada Centre last night.
Back in the season's early days, the Raptors won their first two starts in blowouts, then lost an overtime heartbreaker at home to the Celtics before heading to Milwaukee — only to get thumped badly in a game in which they never showed up.
Last night, coming off perhaps their most dramatic win of the season — 114-112 against the Celtics — the Raptors didn't look past the struggling Bucks as much as they looked straight through them.
The Raptors' Chris Bosh drives to the net against the Milwaukee Bucks in Toronto on Friday. Bosh scored 32 points in the Raptors' 106-75 win. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)
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"We're improving on that," Raptors forward Chris Bosh said. "In the past, we might have still been thinking about [Wednesday's game in] Boston and we'd come across a team and be like, 'Ah, well, let's play.' And we'd get smoked, we'd get beat by underestimating somebody.
"But we did a good job of coming out and being mentally sharp. We deserved everything we got tonight because we worked for it."
What they got was another remarkable night in a remarkable month of January by the NBA team's franchise player, who piled up 32 points on 12-for-19 shooting, improving on his stellar January averages of 27.5 points and 60-per-cent shooting.
Ten of Bosh's total came in a game-defining 19-0 run in the third quarter, part of a second half in which the Raptors turned a 47-42 halftime lead into a blowout win by holding Milwaukee to just 33 second-half points.
"Our defence was great," Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell said. "In the third quarter, we played with a lot of energy, we rebounded the ball, didn't give up any second shots and we scored. When you only give up three field goals in a quarter, you are going to win a lot of basketball games."
The Raptors had some external factors in their favour. The Bucks were playing their fourth game in five nights and second in a row, but the Raptors did what was necessary as they tidied up after making eight turnovers in the first half and continued the shooting streak they established in Boston.
After shooting 15-for-21 against the Celtics from the three-point line, Toronto shot 8-for-15 last night.
Carlos Delfino was essential off the bench. Not only did he hold the Bucks' leading scorer, Michael Redd, to just 12 points, Delfino shot 4-for-6 from deep after making all five of his triples against Boston.
The win improved Toronto to 24-19, a season-best five games over the .500 mark just in time for a compelling — for January at least — home-and-home series beginning on Tuesday against the Washington Wizards. The Wizards are tied with the Raptors for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
The Bucks, picked by many before the season as a candidate for the eighth seed in the East playoffs, slumped to 17-27 and appear headed to the draft lottery. Perhaps there they might be able to find the point guard they've needed since they traded T.J. Ford to the Raptors in 2006 for Charlie Villanueva, who scored 12 points off the bench last night.
To their credit, the Raptors showed little mercy as they won their fifth consecutive home game and seventh in their past nine overall.
"We are feeling good about ourselves right now and we should be because we're playing well," Mitchell said. "We just have to keep playing and getting better."
The win was also proof of how far Bosh has come. In that November loss to Milwaukee, Bosh scored only one point as he was trying to regain his fitness after off-season setbacks with a foot and knee.
And now that he is dominating, the Raptors can gain some encouragement from a reasonable follow-up performance by Andrea Bargnani, who was coming off a much-needed 20-point, seven-rebound, seven-assist night against the Celtics.
The second-year centre struggled early, but scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, while grabbing seven rebounds. "Players who have offensive talent are going to score eventually," Mitchell said. "Everybody goes through a little lull, but if he just keeps focusing on the other things, the offence will come."
