Raptors matching up to their opponents abilities and lead the Atlantic Division

The Raptors are leading the Atlantic Division with a very soft 6 and 7 record and played two games between November 18-24 won both games and actually were sharing the Rock and are respectably 3 and 4 on the road and a not positive 3 and 3 at home, So Wednesday The Raptors went to Kyle Lowry's hometown of Philadelphia for a showdown for first place in the Atlantic division against the Sixers and won 108-98 and really put away with back-to-back 3-balls from Terrence Ross and Steve Novak respectively in the last 40 seconds to build a 87-77 to a 93-77 (16-point lead). The Raptors burned the Sixers by going 14 of 29 beyond the arc and it all thanks to care is sharing approach as they had season-high 24 assists which is a good start for the assist team in the NBA. The Raptors had an incredible 2.4 to 1 assist to turnovers ratio (24 assists to only 10 turnovers) and 24 assists on 36 made field goal and were lead the hometown kid Kyle Lowry who had 10 assists to only two turnovers to go with 13 points. Rudy Gay had 8 assists and had 18 points (6 of 16 from the floor) but it was DeMar DeRozan who stole the show with 33 points which the third 30-plus point performance on the season helped by getting 12 free throws and making 10 of them and was 10 of 19 from the floor. Terrence Ross had a good game of the bench with 12 points. If the Raps rely on the three ball as much as they are right now they struggle so I hope when needed they change their approach to fit what works as they really need to be two or three dimensional team to stay on top of the Atlantic. Friday night the Raptors came back home to the ACC and evened their home record at 3-3 with a battling victory 96-88 over rhe Washington Wizards with help of a sick Rudy Gay put up 11 points in the fourth quarter and had the Raptors last 9 points in the last two and a half minutes to put the game out of reach with a 9-4 run. The second half was a run away train named John Wall who had 30 of his 37 points in the second half and saving grace for the Raps was that the Raps bench outscored the Wizards bench 25-9 lead by another 11 points by Terrence Ross. The Raps starters all had double-digits in points lead by Rudy and DeMar's 17 each and Kyle had 12 points to go with 9 assists compared to only 3 turnovers (3-to-1) while the team had another 22 assists on 37 made field goals(55%) compared to 14 turnovers. Jonas Valanciunas had a double-double with 11 points and 14 boards as the Raps out boarded the Wizards 46-39 and the Raptors outscored the Wizards 17-3 to battle back down 6 to up 8. So this a game that ended the Raps season last season on a Monday night after doing a Harlem Shake video that sent them in a huge tailspin that put them out of the playoff picture so it was nice to see them beat a weaker opponent instead of felling sorry for them and letting them win the game. On top of the world Tom Mehegan