Bosh nets 40 as Raptors overcome Howard, Magic

TORONTO (AP) -- The Toronto Raptors want to fine-tune their aggressive approach in the second half of the season. They sure looked pretty good Wednesday night against the Orlando Magic.

Chris Bosh had 40 points -- going 14-for-16 from the field and 11-for-11 from the foul line -- and Jose Calderon had 19 points and 13 assists as the Raptors won 127-110.

"We have to set the tone for the rest of this year," Bosh said. "It's going to be a big year for us, I think. We're in a position to do some good things."

Toronto set a season high in points and narrowly missed matching the franchise high of 129, set Jan. 15, 2006, against New York.

It was Bosh's fourth 40-point game this season, tying Vince Carter's team record.

Bosh made 11 of his first 12 shots and even had a rare 3-pointer in the third quarter, struggling to contain a smile as he retreated back down court. Bosh is 3-for-6 from 3-point range this season.

"There was not one thing they did that we could guard," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Chris Bosh, we could not guard. We're going to have to think about double-teaming him next time."

Van Gundy said Bosh "destroyed" Orlando center Dwight Howard.

Anticipating that Bosh would struggle trying to post-up Howard, Raptors coach Sam Mitchell urged him to face Howard up instead. With Bosh making shots, the strategy worked.

"When Chris is making his jump shot, he is just too hard to guard," Mitchell said. "He can go around, left and right, and he can shoot it. I told the coaches at halftime when we went into the locker room to just leave him alone, don't coach him because he doesn't need our help right now."

Carlos Delfino came off the bench to score 23 for Toronto, including five 3-pointers. Jamario Moon had 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Anthony Parker scored 10.

Howard led Orlando with 37 points and 15 rebounds, going 13-for-16 from the field and 11-for-15 from the free-throw line. Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu each finished with 16, Jameer Nelson had 13 and Maurice Evans 12.

A jumper by Juan Dixon with 30 seconds left in the third gave the Raptors 100 points. Jason Kapono added two more with a baseline jumper as Toronto took a 102-82 lead into the fourth.

Bosh and Calderon returned after Orlando opened the final quarter with a 10-2 run, closing to 104-92, but the Magic were never able to get the deficit below 10 points.

Van Gundy was unimpressed with the attempted comeback.

"Those kinds of runs happen all the time in the NBA," he said. "All [Mitchell] did was put Calderon and Bosh back in and game over."

Calderon helped ice the game with back-to-back 3-pointers and an alley-oop pass to Moon, giving the Raptors a 16-point lead.

Van Gundy showed his frustration as Toronto pulled away.

"I didn't like our level of competitiveness," he said. "I thought we were hanging our heads and stuff."

Howard agreed that the Magic appeared beaten.

"We missed a couple of shots, they come down and hit two 3s in a row and we hung our heads a little bit," Howard said. "We can't do that. We've just got to keep fighting."

But Moon, who added an exclamation point with a wide-open, one-handed jam after a half-court pass from Delfino, warned Toronto opponents to expect more unmerciful finishes.

"When we see them with their heads down, we want to stick the knife in deeper," Moon said. We're going to put our foot on their throats from now on when we see them down."

It was Orlando's first road loss since a 101-93 defeat at Detroit on Jan. 25. The Magic are a league-best 20-11 away from home.

Game notes
The Raptors shot 58.8 percent (47-for-80) ... Toronto guard T.J. Ford (abdominal strain) was inactive for the second straight game ... Magic coach Stan Van Gundy picked up a technical for arguing a charging call on Brian Cook in the third.