" Callahan pulled the Lightning even at 2 on his second

TORONTO -- It goes down as a comfortable win. But it was far from an impressive performance. "We set basketball back 15 years in the first half," Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey quipped after his team defeated the Orlando Magic 105-90 at the Air Canada Centre Sunday night. "But like I told our guys, were going to have a lot of games where were going to have to grind it out," Casey said. "For whatever reason, we struggle in the first half and then come through, turn it on. "But I also think thats a little bit of growth on our part." After shooting a woeful 41.7 per cent from the field in the first half, the Raptors shot 12-for-14 in the third quarter to blow the game open on the way to win their second straight and fifth in six outings. "Just coming out with a different kind of intensity," point guard Kyle Lowry said when asked about the key to turning things around in the second half. "Weve got to figure out a way to start the game the way we start third quarters. "Thats how weve got to come out from now on." Lowry had 17 points in the third as the Raptors (31-25) widened a three-point halftime lead to 15. Lowry, who was just 1-for-7 from the field in the first half, hit all five of his attempts in the third quarter. He had four from beyond the three-point arc in the period, including a 25-footer at the buzzer which brought the crowd of 17,435 to their feet. Lowry scored the final 14 points for the Raptors in the third quarter and the first two of the fourth quarter as Toronto stretched the lead to as much as 18 points. Toronto is six games above .500 for the first time since Feb. 24, 2010, when they were also 31-25. Facing the struggling Magic (17-41), the Raptors were uncharacteristically sloppy, turning the ball over 24 times, which led to 25 Orlando points and allowed the visitors to keep the game close. "Were not that good of a team to just ease our way into the game," Lowry said. "Weve got to come out and play with our hard-nosed and hard-headed intensity from the start." Lowry scored 28 points, including four three-pointers to run his career-high mark to 134 this season. DeMar DeRozan added 24 points for the Raptors, who had five players score in double-figures. Amir Johnson left midway through the third quarter with what was described by Raptors personnel as a right ankle sprain. He had 12 points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes before leaving. Casey said it didnt appear Johnson hurt it as badly as earlier in the season when he missed two games. Tobias Harris matched Lowrys 28 points to lead Orlando, which fell to 3-26 on the road. It was the Magics 15th straight loss away from home. The Raptors led 19-14 after the first quarter; 44-41 at the half and 80-65 going into the fourth. "You cant put your finger on the slow starts," DeRozan said. "Maybe we like a challenge sometimes by putting ourselves in a tough situation, so we can fight our way out. "We have to stop that and understand that we have to come out of the gate, so we dont make the game that hard on us." The Raptors visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday before returning home to host the Washington Wizards on Thursday and the Golden State Warriors next Sunday afternoon. Hotspur Jerseys . Solomon Elimimian did not make the trip with the team after suffering what appeared to be a right leg injury in the teams regular season finale against the Calgary Stampeders. Georges-Kevin NKoudou Hotspur Jersey . The day began ominously for the Rangers when star pitcher Yu Darvish was scratched from his scheduled start with stiffness in his neck. Fill-in Scott Baker gave up three hits over six innings and Chris Gimenez hit a tiebreaking two-out RBI single in the sixth off Phil Hughes. http://www.footballhotspurstore.com/Women-Hugo-Lloris-Tottenham-Hotspur-Jersey/ . The rest of the team was already on the field stretching before batting practice while Puig was getting dressed in the clubhouse. He had been slated to start in right field for the afternoon game against the San Francisco Giants, who beat the Dodgers 8-4. Michel Vorm Hotspur Jersey . - For years William Gay kept quiet. Ben Davies Hotspur Jersey . -- Fantasy football owners and Denver Broncos fans can rest easy: Peyton Manning is back.TAMPA, Fla. -- Sami Salo joked that as the shootout went on and on, one thing went through his mind: "Youve got to tie up your skates. I might get a chance." The 15-year NHL defenceman made the most of a rare shootout opportunity, scoring in the 13th round to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders on Thursday night. "It just happened to go in," said Salo of his first successful shootout goal, coming in his third ever attempt. "It was obviously good for us. Its a good feeling." The shootout was tied at 4 through 12 rounds before Salo put a backhander past Evgeni Nabokov. Ben Bishop preserved the win by making a glove save on Johan Sundstrom. Ryan Callahan had two goals for the Lightning, who trail Montreal by two points for second place in the Atlantic Division. Tampa Bay, 6-0-4 in its last 10 games, has two games in hand on the Canadiens. "First and foremost, we got two points," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "So, thats what we need out of the game. Were going to have to do better than that. Give the Islanders some credit, they played really hard. Definitely, there were positives in the game, but as a whole, were a better 5-on-5 team than we showed tonight." The Islanders, out of the playoff race, got goals from Ryan Strome and Matt Donovan. Right wing Kyle Okposo, who has a team-best 27 goals and 69 points, was a late scratch due to a lower body injury. "We are trying to play hard at this point of the season, andd were trying to get better each and every day," Islanders defenceman Travis Hamonic said.dddddddddddd "I thought we played a pretty good game." All three games between the teams this season were decided in a shootout, with the road team winning the first two. "I dont mind them when were winning," Callahan said. "When you lose them, you hate them." Callahan pulled the Lightning even at 2 on his second goal of the game, coming on a rebound 5:50 into the third. "We didnt have our best game, but really willed a way to win," Bishop said. Donovan put the Islanders up 2-1 while lunging forward in the slot at 9:17 of the second. It ended the defencemans 39-game goal drought. After Callahan redirected Radko Gudas shot past Nabokov just 29 seconds into the second, Strome put a shot past Bishop to tie it at 1 at 1:33. New York had a short-handed goal by Hamonic from centre ice waved off due to an offside call in the second. Hamonic stole Bishops errant long-range pass from the corner and put the puck into the vacated net. The Islanders failed to score during a 5-on-3 power play early in the third. Tampa Bay came up empty on a power play that covered the final 69 seconds of overtime. NOTES: Tampa Bay C Valtteri Filppula had an assist to extend his point streak (10 assists, 14 points) to 10 games. ... The Islanders recalled forward John Persson on an emergency basis from Bridgeport of the AHL. Persson, selected in the fifth round of the 2011 draft, made his NHL debut. ' ' '