The Raptors bench erupted on Sunday as Terence Davis II broke the 30-point barrier for the first time in his 50-game NBA career — with his sixth three-pointer in the dying minutes of a blowout win over the Chicago Bulls.

Amid the jumping and hugging and celebratory slapping courtside was a relatively calm Serge Ibaka, the seven-foot veteran big’s arm simply slung over the six-foot-four rookie guard’s shoulder — with all the pride of a big brother.

“Serge has been a light into my life, me being a rookie,” Davis said post-game. “Helping me eat right. We go lift after games ... he told me he was proud of me. I really took that to heart.”

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The feeling is mutual for the 30-year-old Ibaka.

In a season where the Raptors’ role players have shouldered important minutes, Ibaka is playing some of the best basketball of his career — averaging a career-high 15.5 points and 1.3 assists in 26.4 minutes per game. He has also taken ownership of showing Davis that playing a role, no matter how small, can lead to much more.

Even with NBA-level talent — something the Raptors were confident the 22-year-old Davis possessed despite going undrafted last year — up-and-coming players need the right people around them to reach their potential. In his 11th NBA season, Ibaka has taken young teammates under his wing before. But it takes more than a willing mentor to make it work.

“The difference is, some young fellas they don’t really take to it,” Ibaka said Sunday. “They don’t really listen. So you have to give a lot of credit to (Davis) for listening to me and wanting to do it. He’s always looking to get better. He’s always asking me, on me: ‘Tell me what I should do here.’ That motivates me to want to help him more.”

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That inquisitive nature, and the work rate to go with it, has given Nick Nurse — named Eastern Conference coach of the month for January on Monday — the confidence to put Davis on the floor. Further up the Raptors food chain, impact performances off the bench may be just the validation team president Masai Ujiri needs to let this group play out the season without any significant changes before Thursday’s trade deadline.

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In another world, Ibaka’s career-best numbers and expiring contract would make him a trade chip. But with a 36-14 record and an 11-game win streak on the go, the Raptors seem poised to go with what they’ve got.

It’s a challenge Davis would welcome.

“This is a great organization. We all love each other, we care for each other, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, honestly,” Davis said.

A championship repeat is Ibaka’s No. 1 goal, and he says it can’t be done without contributions from guys like Davis.

“After winning a championship, I learned something,” Ibaka said in December. “To win a championship you need everybody to be out there, everybody to have confidence and play at a high level. Since I want to win another one, I have to make sure everybody around me is good.”

Sunday’s performance earned Ibaka and Davis a veteran-sanctioned reprieve from work in the weight room that night. One or two good games is no reason for Davis to relax, however, Ibaka said. Consistency is the goal.

With Norman Powell out indefinitely with a fractured finger on his left hand, the Raptors will rely more heavily on Davis.

“He had a good game,” Ibaka said. “But tomorrow I will be telling him, ‘Yeah that was good, but you still have a ways to go.’”