PHOENIX—It was early in the fourth quarter, the game was all but decided and Sebastian Telfair made a steal at midcourt of the US Airways Center.

The play led to a breakaway layup for his Raptors teammate Landry Fields and as Fields put the ball in the bucket, Telfair stood, glared at the Phoenix Suns bench and clapped his hands violently.

It was the ultimate “take that” moment for the point guard who spent the first 47 games of the season in a Suns uniform.

The play itself was hardly memorable, nor was the night, but Telfair won’t likely forget his 10-point, four-assist evening as the Raptors trounced the Suns 98-71 to break off a five-game losing streak.

“I had a hunch that he would play hard here and he did,” coach Dwane Casey said after leaving Telfair out for 25 minutes.

“I explained to John (Lucas), it’s nothing John Lucas has done wrong . . . I just wanted to get a good look at Bassy, get a good look at (Terrence) Ross, give those guys big-time minutes, quality minutes in the game tonight.”

While saying it wasn’t personal, Telfair made it personal.

“Anytime your spot gets taken or given away, you want to come out and show that you are a player,” he said. “I do this for my family and my kids so I had to do this. I wouldn’t call it personal but you do have to go out there and compete.”

It was as easy a win as Toronto has posted in a while. The Raptors were dominant at both ends and it was like a night off against a Suns team apparently deserving of its spot at the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

It was Toronto’s bench that did most of the damage, with Telfair playing the entire second and fourth quarters and Alan Anderson providing some much-needed second-unit offence.

The Raptors were so comfortable, Casey went to a lineup never seen before —Telfair, Lucas, Ross, Anderson and Jonas Valanciunas late in the fourth quarter.

“We want to make sure we stay on a mission but it was great to get those young guys quality minutes — they played the whole second quarter almost so it was quality minutes at that point,” said the coach.

The game was another opportunity for Casey to coax some minutes and get some much-needed experience for Valanciunas, the rookie centre who was back in the starting lineup.

The Suns don’t have a dominant inside presence — and lost what they have when Marcin Gortat left with a foot injury in the first quarter — and that allowed Valanciunas to get some work in.

“I wanted to play Valanciunas more but when they went to (Michael) Beasley at the five, that kind of took us out of that,” said Casey.

Valanciunas did play 20 minutes with 10 points and three rebounds; no Raptors starter played more than DeMar DeRozan’s 30.

“I thought they stayed with the task,” said Casey. “The hardest thing to do in the NBA is play with the lead and I was afraid we were going to relax a little bit and we didn’t. They stuck to the task.”

By trying to use Valanciunas as much as possible — but never at the cost of a possible victory — Casey is willing to put up with a few gaffes.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“We’ve got to accept a few more (mistakes). There’s only 20 games to go with J.V., we have to see what he can do, he’s improved somewhat from early in the year,” he said. “Early in the year they were just going down our lane willy-nilly and he’s gotten better but we’ve got to live with some mistakes from him and Ross just to make sure they get some meaningful playing time.”

The Raptors held Phoenix to 37.8 per cent shooting from the field and forced an astonishing 29 turnovers that turned into 39 points. The Suns’ 71 points were the fewest allowed by Toronto this season.

MORE:Toronto Star basketball coverage

Read more about: