DeMar DeRozan was asked on Friday night about teammate Luis Scola, who poured in a pace-setting 17 points in the first quarter of the Raptors’ 105-91 win over the Boston Celtics.

“The old man, that’s what the old man do,” DeRozan said of his 35-year-old partner in crime. “I call Scola . . . he’s like an old-school Cutlass. He gets you where you want to go, but don’t rely on him for any road trips.”

The room went up in laughter and DeRozan, who had a relatively quiet night with 15 points and six assists against a tight Celtics defence, essentially dropped the mic and walked away from the crowd.

The Raptors rode Scola through that first quarter then relied on their motor, point guard Kyle Lowry, who scored 15 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth, to take them to their 47th win of the season. The game wrapped up a tough stretch of four games in five nights that saw them go 3-1. That record came despite injuries to Jonas Valanciunas (left hand) and James Johnson (plantar fasciitis), the usual absence of DeMarre Carroll as he recovers from his knee surgery, and DeRozan getting a night of rest in that stretch.

“We always say it’s not a one- or two-man show. It’s a 15-man show,” Lowry said. “We got guys who can play basketball. Lucas (Nogueira) came in and affected the game. Every single night everyone has to be prepared to play and we all appreciate everything everyone in this locker room can do for us.”

Scola’s legs are the oldest in the Raptors’ locker room but he played like he’d been lapping up the fountain of youth before tipoff. He hit a three-pointer early, then went to his post-up moves to keep it coming. He stole the ball from Avery Bradley at midcourt and had the Raptors bench in hysterics after he threw down an uncontested dunk. The Raptors led 30-14 after the first quarter and 55-41 at the half.

“I thought Luis, in the first quarter, really set the tone with his play, his effort, his force, his post-ups, his rebounding,” Casey said. “He really helped jumpstart us in the first quarter.”

Lowry routinely takes over in the fourth quarter, but he found some extra motivation on Friday. He said a Celtics fan behind the bench trash-talked him and he took exception to it.

He made a pair of free throws and back-to-back triples, turning a nine-point game into a 17-point one and killing any momentum the Celtics generated in the third quarter. Boston outscored Toronto 33-24 in the third and narrowed the lead to five points before going cold and scoring just three baskets through the first eight minutes of the fourth.

“It was to a fan, for sure,” Lowry said. “I would never disrespect a bench. I have the ultimate respect for those guys. It was definitely not towards them and I went and told them that. It was to a fan who was talking trash the whole game.”

Despite the injuries and the resting of key players, the Raptors have come through their only four-in-five stretch of the season and maintained their high level of play. They’ve done it with the 15-man effort that Lowry spoke of.

On Friday night, it was Scola the Cutlass. On Thursday in Indianapolis, it was Bismack Biyombo having a career night with 16 points and 25 rebounds. The Raptors are now three wins away from 50, a franchise best, and more important to them, two away from a playoff berth.

With 14 games left in the regular season, Scola wants to see the Raptors continue to grow.

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“Soon . . . we’ll be in the grey area where we can move up and down (in the standings),” he said. “That will be a little bit of a challenge for us to continue to build while we rest players and play games maybe not as meaningful. We’re winning 70 per cent of our games, which is remarkable.”

The Raptors host the Orlando Magic on Sunday at 4:30 p.m., then get a couple of days off before a three-game road trip through Boston, Houston and New Orleans.

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