Raptors Continue their winning ways 113-99; Calderon has another big game

The Raptor Rap Up

Canadian Tristan Thompson defends Jose Calderon. The Raptors pulled out their 3rd straight win, 113-99.
(Photo Courtesy of Mark Duncan/AP)

Going into Tuesday nights game, a lot of Raptor fans felt their team had a good shot at a win. They were right. The Raptors cruised to a 113-99 victory over the Cavaliers, led by Jose Calderon's 23 points. Calderon, who has been coming up big since the injury of starting point guard Kyle Lowry, led the way from the get go with 11 first quarter points. He's doing his absolute best to take over the reigns as starting point guard when Lowry returns. Calderon was rumoured to have requested a trade last week, but recently was quoted saying, "I made up my mind, I want to be the guy, I'm here, this is my team". He also added that it doesn't matter the amount of minutes he gets, he just wants to be here. 

The Raptors started slow, being down 6-1 less then three minutes in, but picked up the pace. They started trading buckets with the Cavaliers in the second quarter, and were looking for that spark to come along and give them the edge. They found it in Alan Anderson, who had two early threes (Anderson finished with 18 points along with five three points on seven tries). The Raptors went on a 14-9 run to end the 3rd quarter to give them the lead. After having some trouble keeping leads in the 4th quarter, the Raptors actually managed to hold off Cleveland, outscoring them 35-23 in the final frame. 

Overall, a great team game by the Raptors. They had a total of 25 assists in the game, which is what is needed to win games. The whole team got involved, and it turned into a win. 

After the buzzer thoughts

- Near perfect game for the Raptors, did everything required to win.

- Defence looked good, especially in the 4th quarter. Needs to remain that way if the Raptors want to gain ground.

- Anderson is turning into a great bench player. A pleasant surprise.

- Good game from John Lucas III. He is realizing that he needs to make the most of these situations and is playing very well for a third stringer.

- Valanciunas only played 18 minutes, but had 8 points and 7 rebounds along with only the one foul. Deserves more minutes against Orlando

- No Landry Fields, although he was available. Surprised he didn't get a few minutes when the game was out of reach.