Hardwood Highlight of the Night: Magic's focus on DeRozan opens up Ross's 3

The Toronto Raptors were far from their best Tuesday against the Orlando Magic, entering the fourth quarter facing an 11-point deficit.

But twelve minutes of basketball later, the Raptors won their fifth straight game and improved to an Eastern Conference-best 7-1.

There were plenty of key plays made by the likes of Kyle Lowry, Patrick Patterson and James Johnson during the decisive final frame, but one that sticks out involved DeMar DeRozan freeing up Terrence Ross for the game-tying three in the final minutes.

DeRozan had a tough night at the office, scoring 16 points on 4-of-15 shooting, but he did add four assists - plus four rebounds and a steal - and this play exemplifies how a slasher of his caliber can create opportunities for others.

With the Raptors down 95-92 and 3:33 remaining, they inbounded the ball after DeRozan drew a foul on Tobias Harris. At that point, everyone was accounted for: 

Luke Ridnour had his eye on Patterson, Nikola Vucevic was right behind Lowry, Channing Frye and Harris were guarding Johnson and Ross was on the weak side. Evan Fournier was checking DeRozan, the inbounder.

DeRozan inbounded to Patterson at the top and then broke away from Fournier: 

Fournier correctly predicted that DeRozan was going to get the ball. But as it appeared DeRozan would curl towards the left side around a Patterson screen, he faked Fournier out by stopping at the screen and headed straight down the middle.

You can see Fournier caught by the change of direction, and DeRozan about to begin his drive here:

With DeRozan, a strong finisher and elite foul-drawing machine, averaging 9.4 free throws per game entering Tuesday, about to cut through the heart of the defense, the Magic scrambled to help on the drive, collapsing around the Raptors swingman:

Patterson and Lowry had looks at threes, but given the direction DeRozan was headed, they both would've been somewhat awkward passes. Johnson was also making a back-door cut, but with Harris taking a couple of steps towards the paint, DeRozan knew that's all Ross needed to get a clean 3-point shot off.

Ross is also red-hot from long range right now, having hit 12 of his last 18 3-point attempts, which likely factored into the decision.

It all led to this, as Harris couldn't recover back to the perimeter in time:

(Courtesy: TSN2)