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TORONTO - An overtime game in New York, a long wait at an airport, a middle-of-the-night flight back home to Toronto.Less than 24 hours after beating the Knicks on the road, the Raptors had every excuse in the world to lose to the Orlando Magic on Monday night, said coach Dwane Casey.Thats what I told them at halftime, he said.But, as has become their habit this season, the Raptors used a strong second half to defeat the Magic 95-82, behind 18 points from Lou Williams and 17 points and eight assists from Kyle Lowry. I dont want to give our guys an excuse but we get in at 2 in the morning, come through Customs; we have to sit at the gate in New York forever — I dont know if they do that on purpose or what — and then we get in late, back-to-back, overtime game, Casey said.But in the second half we found our voice, our energy, our spirit. . . we found our defensive mojo in the second half.Amir Johnson finished with 11 points, while Patrick Patterson chipped in with 10 for the East-leading Raptors (19-6), who played their ninth game without injured all-star DeMar DeRozan.Tobias Harris had 18 points to top Orlando (10-17), while Ben Gordon had 16. The victory was Torontos 10th straight over Orlando.It wasnt the prettiest of victories for Toronto, which needed overtime in Sundays ugly 95-90 win over the Knicks. But on Monday the Raptors turned an eight-point deficit late in the first half to a 71-65 lead heading into the fourth quarter. A three-pointer by Channing Frye cut Torontos lead to just two points with 9:28 to play. But the Raptors play their best basketball in fourth quarters at the Air Canada Centre, and by the time Greivis Vasquez drained a floating jumper with six minutes to play, the Raptors were up by 14 in front of another capacity crowd of 19,800 fans.Energy, Patterson said, on the difference in the second half. In that first half we couldnt use (Sunday) night as an excuse. Although guys were a little bit tired and exhausted, we had a great motivational speech in the locker-room at halftime and then guys just came out and stepped it up.It started off with Kyle being the leader that he is and it just carried over to everyone else.A driving layup by Williams gave Toronto a 16-point lead — their largest of the game — with 3:54 to play. The Magic would chip away at the deficit, pulling to within 10, but that only served to fire up Lowry, who drilled a three with 1:47 to go, putting the game out of reach and securing Toronto its third straight victory.Orlando hasnt beaten Toronto since March of 2012.Lowry admitted the night of travel hadnt been easy.I wouldnt use anything as an excuse but it took us awhile to get back, Lowry said. Its part of the league, we know were always going to take long trips on back-to-backs, so its all good.DeRozan made his first appearance on the bench since he tore his groin tendon, sitting alongside the assistant coaches dressed in a light grey suit.Orlando guard Evan Fournier played the second half with stitches in his lip after taking an errant elbow from Tyler Hansbrough in the second quarter that left him down on the floor for several minutes. A shaky Fournier was helped to the locker-room where his lip was stitched up. The Raptors were outshot 49 per cent to 45, but outrebounded their visitors 39-36.Boy they made it tough on us (in the second half), said Magic coach Jacque Vaughn. What did we score, 30 points in the half? Youre not going to win too many games that way unless they score 29.The Raptors rallied from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to pull out a 104-100 home win when these two teams played on Nov. 11. Orlando had dropped 33 points on Toronto in the first quarter of that game, and Casey warned his players to beware of another quick start.They ambushed us here last game, they came out shooting the three, attacking our feet, running at us, they had 30 transition points in the first half, Casey said.The Raptors led for most of the first quarter, taking a 10-point lead on a Lowry pullup jumper with 3:38 to play. The Magic fought back and dunk by Elfrid Payton cut the Raptors lead to 28-25 going into the second.Orlando continued its run in the second, holding Toronto without a field goal for more than six minutes. The Magic led 52-44 at halftime.Lowry came out of the break on a mission, leading his team in scoring (eight points), boards (4) and assists (5) in a third quarter that saw Toronto outscore their visitors 27-13 to lead by six going into the fourth.The Raptors have Tuesday off practice, then host the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday.Its going to be good, Lowry said. Well take advantage and get our rest in, and start thinking about Brooklyn.The Raptors follow their date with the Nets with a game in Detroit on Friday. Theyre back home to host the New York Knicks on Sunday then play six straight on the road — a two-week break from the ACC while the world junior hockey championships are in town. Clearance Nike Shox .The team had a meeting prior to facing Russia at the world junior hockey championship and got the effort theyve been looking for by defeating the Russians 4-1 to advance to the quarter-finals. Nike Shox Clearance Wholesale . Lawrie was hit on the hand by Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Cueto in the second inning of Sundays 4-3 loss to the Reds. http://www.nikeshoxdiscount.com/ . Milan was held to 1-1 at home by Torino. Cagliari scored six minutes from halftime when Mauricio Pinilla blasted home from the penalty spot after Facundo Roncaglia tripped Marco Sau. The home side could have doubled its tally in stoppage time as first Fiorentina defender Stefan Savic almost scored an own goal then Albin Ekdals shot clipped the top of the upright. Nike Shox Clearance Sale . Joel Embiid was nearly unstoppable in the paint in the second half, and Naadir Tharpe seemingly couldnt miss. Nike Shox Cheap Wholesale .Y. - For once, Clayton Kershaw was glad to see a long shutout streak end.MANCHESTER, England -- Samir Nasri scored twice as Manchester City maintained its 100 per cent home record and moved to third place in the Premier League with a 3-0 win over Swansea on Sunday. In-form striker Alvaro Negredo put City in front after eight minutes with a free kick into the bottom left corner. Nasri then exploited Yaya Toures through ball to double his teams lead in the 58th and the French international sealed the win with a brilliant finish in the 77th. The result lifted City to third place in the standings after Liverpool lost to Hull, but the team is still six points behind leader Arsenal. City is the only team in the Premier League with a perfect home record this season -- seven wins in seven matches. Swansea had a good chance to equalize just before halftime but Jonathan de Guzman shot over. City goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon, again preferred to Joe Hart, had earlier saved twice from Jonjo Shelvey. Hart might have hoped to feature after playing in the Champions League in midweek but, aside from Joleon Lescott replacing the injured Matija Nastasic, City fielded the side that thrashed Tottenham 6-0. City again raced out of the blocks with Sergio Aguero charging through and shooting at Gerhard Tremmel inside the first minute. Tremmel was quickly in action again as Negredo forced him to tip around the post with a long-rangee shot.dddddddddddd Negredo was fouled outside the area shortly afterward and stepped up to clip home the resulting free kick in the eight minute. Swansea then enjoyed a spell of dominating possession and creating a couple of chances, with Shelvey twice forcing Pantilimon to save with shots from distance. Both sides had penalty appeals as Pablo Hernandez claimed to be pulled back by Martin Demichelis and Aguero went down under a Jose Canas challenge but referee Mark Clattenburg was convinced by neither. De Guzman shot at Pantilimon and spurned an even better chance to equalize when he fired over just before the interval Citys second finally came just before the hour as Yaya Toure strode forward in trademark fashion to find Nasri inside the area. The Frenchman still had much to do but the defence could not touch him as he ran across goal and fired low into the bottom left corner. City almost had a third when Toure found Aguero and Swanseas half-clearance fell to the inrushing Pablo Zabaleta but the fullback shot over. But there was little respite for the Swans and Zabaleta instead turned to a creators role by rushing onto a James Milner throughball and pulling back for Nasri to tuck home after 77 minutes. 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