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Raptors on a roll with dominant victory over Bucks

Xinhua, December 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Toronto Raptors made easy work of the Milwaukee Bucks in their 122-100 win on Monday evening, their ninth win in the last 10 games.

Throughout the 10-game span, Toronto averaged 116.6 points per game and won by an average margin of 17.5 points.

With the win, the team has improved to 17-7 on the season and 10-4 in home games at Air Canada Centre.

Raptors head coach Dwane Casey believes that the recent results are due to his team hitting the shots they were missing earlier in the season.

"Like I've always said, it's a make or miss league," Casey emphasized following the win. "Teams are trying to take the ball out of Kyle (Lowry) and DeMar's (DeRozan) hands and they're doing a good job and finding teammates."

During the game, the Raptors shot the ball at a 50.6 percent (42-for-82) rate from the field and at 56.0 percent (14-for-25) from beyond the arc.

In the last 10 games, Toronto averaged 49.7 percent from the field, compared to 45.9 percent in the 14 games prior. The improvement on their three-point shooting is even more drastic, rising from 33.1 percent to 48.7 percent.

Despite the improved offensive efficiencies, coach Dwane Casey is not satisfied with his team's consistency on the defensive end.

"We can't get caught in outscoring people," Casey said after learning that Milwaukee shot the ball at a 47.2 percent clip. "We got to do a better job of protecting the rim and the paint."

"Our standards got to be higher, we can't be satisfied with a win. We got to try and achieve other things to see the big picture," he added.

Forward DeMar DeRozan, who led the team in scoring for the 17th time this season with his game-high 30 points against Milwaukee, is on the same page as his coach.

"We got to lean on defence first, no matter what. We got to play defence like we're missing shots," said DeRozan after the game. "Once we go out there playing with that mindset, it'll come consistently after that."

Consistency appears to be improving, as Toronto held opponents to 44.2 percent in the most recent 10-game stretch, compared to 45.6 percent prior to it. In half of the games during the stretch, Toronto held opponents to under 45 percent, including holding the Lakers to a season low 34.4 percent on Dec. 2. Endit