TORONTO - Kyle Lowry was the first player on the floor, shooting around before the game. It was just after 4:00pm, three full hours ahead of tip-off at the Air Canada Centre. Lowry has been the subject of trade speculation for the better part of two days but the Raptors point guard, who shrugged off the rumours Friday morning, continued to lead his current team, a team that looked unrecognizable in a wire-to-wire win over the road-weary 76ers. "He was a leader out there on the floor and thats what we need from him, that leadership," Casey said of Lowry, who has now led Toronto in assists in 13 straight games. "He didnt get frustrated because he couldnt get some shots to go down. He still got the ball where it needed to go and that was huge." With his name linked to multiple trade reports, Lowry faced the rumours head-on when he met with the media Friday morning. Instead of sulking or worrying about where he might end up, Lowry smiled, cracked a few jokes and promised to go about his business here until hes told otherwise. In what may have been his last home game as a member of the Raptors, Lowry recorded a season-high 11 assists, committing just one turnover despite shooting just 2-of-9 from the floor. Once again Lowry set the tone and his teammates - three of them making their Raptors debut - followed his lead. Three nights after totalling 23 assists in a loss to the Spurs, the Raptors continued to play a team game in the aftermath of Mondays Rudy Gay trade. DeMar DeRozan - also scoring 27 points - added six assists, including five in a dominant first quarter. His first three set up Terrence Ross, who had a breakout performance scoring a season-high 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting. "Thats the way weve got to play," Casey said of Torontos ball movement. "Because were not going to beat anyone with stellar one-on-one play each and every night. Weve got to help each other with the screen and trust the pass." Averaging just 18 assists per contest this season, the Raptors have totalled 66 dimes in three games since Gay was traded. They opened the evening with 12 assists on 14 made field goals, outscoring Philadelphia 36-21 in the first quarter and would later seal the game on a play that embodied this teams new offence. With just under two minutes remaining, the scrappy 76ers down two, DeRozan caught the ball off a screen on a pass from Lowry. Once the double came, DeRozan swung it back to Lowry who hit Ross in the corner for a momentum shifting three-pointer. Amir Johnson scored seven of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, sending the 76ers away with their 10th straight loss on the road. In their Raptor debuts, Patrick Patterson, John Salmons and Greivis Vasquez were the first three players off Torontos bench. With all three on the floor at the same time to begin the second quarter, Philadelphia ripped off a 20-7 run, cutting Torontos lead to two. The learning curve was apparent. "Theyre learning," Casey acknowledged. "Theyre learning the system, were kind of learning to play with each other." "I like what I saw," he said. "Going forward I think they are going to mix in quite well." Patterson shot just 1-of-5, scoring five points in 18 minutes while Salmons scored three in just under 20 minutes of action. Vasquez was the most impressive of the three but not in the way he would have hoped. "Tonight I did not have that many assists," said the pass-first Vasquez, who recorded just two but hit five of his seven shots for 12 points in 17 minutes. "The thing that stood out for me was that we were moving the ball without me in the game. We were passing and getting shots and that is fun to watch." "If we keep doing what we did tonight we are going to be really hard to guard and we will win a lot of games." For the first time all season, Casey could comfortably rest Lowry without fearing the significant drop-off that would inevitably ensue at the point guard position. With Lowry on the block, Vasquezs role figures to expand. Up next The Raptors travel to Chicago to face the Bulls (9-12) in the second night of a back-to-back on Saturday. Chicago had lost five of six games before defeating the Bucks 91-90 in Milwaukee Friday night. The fourth Raptors newcomer, Chuck Hayes, will not be available to play or practice until he completes routine baseline cardiac tests at the Cleveland Clinic on Monday. nfl jerseys china . 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First-half goals by Will Bruin and Oscar Boniek Garcia sucked the life out of the Impact as the Houston Dynamo bounced them from Major League Soccers post-season with a 3-0 victory on Thursday. Montreal was clearly frustrated, losing its composure and earning three ejections over the course of the game. "The match was not so bad at the beginning, but they went up by two, and that made it very difficult for us," said Impact head coach Marco Schallibaum. "We thought that if we could make it 2-1 in the second half, wed have a chance, but then we got the red card." Bruin scored a second goal in the 72nd minute for a 3-0 Dynamo lead after Impact defender Nelson Rivas was ejected from the match following his second yellow card two minutes prior. In the final minute of the match two Montreal players -- forward Marco Di Vaio and defender Andres Romero -- were handed red cards following a skirmish in the near corner near the Impacts goal. Di Vaio, Romero and Rivas will miss Montreals first regular season game in 2014. "Sorry for my reaction in the game tonight," said Romero in a tweet after the game. "I felt great impotence and no I couldnt control. Excuse me!" The Impact qualified for the MLS playoffs in just their second season in the league, but they had a share of the Eastern Conference lead as late as Sept. 8 before falling to fifth after a loss on the final day of the regular season. The Dynamo finished two points ahead of Montreal in the standings to earn home field for the knockout round. "It has been a long season, and of course we are tired," said Schallibaum. "But that is no excuse for what happened." Some members of Montreals lineup are seeing the late-season collapse as an opportunity for growth. "We can learn from Houston; they are a good team and played a very good match tonight," said Impact defender Hassoun Camara. "Yes, its an experience, and maybe a hard lesson for us to learn tonight, but we have to llook toward the future and find a way to come back.dddddddddddd" Montreals Justin Mapp had a chance to even the score in the 18th minute, but his shot just missed the right post after Bobby Boswell turned the ball over in the far corner. Di Vaio led the Impact with five shots, just two of which were on target. Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall recorded his fourth post-season shutout and said he is looking forward to the rest of the playoffs. "Sometimes its fun being a goalkeeper and watching the team in front of you put on a performance (like that)," said Hall. "It makes soccer fun, especially when you look around and everyone is playing their best soccer of the year." In the 16th minute, Bruin received a back-heeled pass from Ricardo Clark, found some space just inside the box and ripped home his fifth career playoff goal. Bruin scored four goals as Houston reached the MLS Cup final a year ago. The Dynamo extended their lead in the 27th minute as Boniek Garcia converted a penalty kick after Montreals Hernan Bernardello tripped him in the box. Since Aug. 24, following a 5-0 win over Houston in Montreal, the Impact has won just two of 11 games and have been shutout seven times. "We just have not had the right disposition in the second half of the season," added Schallibaum. "There was a lot to handle mentally. We need to analyze what happened, what we have gone through and just try to be better next year." Houston advances to play the No. 1-seeded New York Red Bulls (17-9-8) in a two-game, aggregate score series. The first match is in Houston on Sunday, and the second will be at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey on Nov. 6. The Red Bulls won the 2013 Supporters Shield with the best record in the MLS. "The one thing about this group, the attention to detail once the playoffs starts, it grows minute by minute and they prepare themselves to give themselves the best chance possible," said Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear. ""Even at the end there, cooler heads prevailed and its important that we did because the game on Sunday." cheap jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '