Raptors rout Bucks 124-83

Late in the third quarter of the Raptors’ rout of Milwaukee on Friday, fans starting chanting: “We want Bruno!”

That’s how massive Toronto’s lead was.

Lou Williams scored 22 points, rookie Bruno Caboclo entertained the fans in his NBA debut, and the Toronto Raptors scorched the Bucks 124-83 — a gigantic punctuation mark on their seven-game homestand.

It was one point shy of the largest margin of victory in Raptors’ history.

Kyle Lowry added 20 points in just 26 minutes for the Eastern Conference-leading Raptors (10-2), who went 6-1 on their homestand. Jonas Valanciunas had 18 points and 12 boards, while Terrence Ross finished with 13 points, and Greivis Vasquez scored 11.

Jabari Parker had 15 points to top the Bucks, who were coming off a 122-118 triple overtime win over Brooklyn two nights earlier.

The Raptors pulled away virtually from the opening whistle, and had topped their franchise-best lead (43 points) when they went up by 45 late in the third quarter. They led 101-57 going into the fourth.

The capacity crowd of 19,800 Air Canada Centre fans were rewarded when Caboclo checked into the game to start the fourth. He had the fans flying out of their seats when Williams found him for an alley-oop dunk for his first NBA points. The Brazilian rookie followed it up with a three-pointer on Toronto’s next possession on an entertaining night of basketball.

His second three with 6:01 left in the game put the Raptors up by a whopping 52 points, and by the game’s final few minutes, the ACC crowd was chanting “Let’s go Bru-no!”

Caboclo finished with eight points.

Fellow Brazilian Lucas Nogueira also made his NBA debut, while seldom used Greg Stiemsma and Landry Fields played most of the fourth quarter.

The victory came despite a seven-point night by Toronto’s top scorer DeMar DeRozan.

Toronto’s best margin of victory was 42 points in a 96-54 win over Miami on March 19, 2008.

Raptors coach Dwane Casey had worried his players would look ahead past Milwaukee to Saturday’s tough matchup against LeBron James and the Cavaliers in Cleveland.

“If we don’t come out to take care of business, they can embarrass you, and just spank you like you stole something,” Casey said before tip-off.

“Every night I go out and am scared to death of the teams we’re playing. I have a healthy amount of respect. We told the players how this team has been playing. . . If we’re looking to Cleveland, shame on us. We deserve to get our butts whooped if we’re looking (past) tonight to (Saturday) night.”

Valanciunas had 12 points in the first quarter including the floater midway through the frame that put the Raptors up by 17 points. The Bucks fought back to within seven, but a three by Williams at the buzzer put Toronto up by 10 heading into the second.

Williams was the high scorer with 11 points in a second quarter that saw Toronto top the Bucks 34-18. Williams hit yet another three at the buzzer to send the Raptors into the dressing room with a 71-45 advantage.

The Raptors showed no mercy in the third, holding the Bucks to just 12 points and passing their franchise-best lead of 43 points late in the quarter, to go into the fourth up by 45.

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