Toronto celebrates the Raptors' 1,000th game with a win

The Toronto Raptors earned their sixth straight win on Tuesday night with a 115-112 victory over the Miami Heat.

And although the Raps ended with six players in double digits, including 27 points from DeMar DeRozan and 22 points from Kyle Lowry, that wasn’t the highlight of the night.

It also wasn’t the fact that Toronto hit 13 3-pointers, which ties for the second most it has hit all season. And this crazy-weird-circus-shot by Lowry to beat the halftime buzzer? Not it either.

The highlight of the night was the Toronto Raptor: cleverly named The Raptor.

The Feb. 13 game marked the mascot’s 1,000th home game with the franchise, and the Air Canada Centre was filled with celebration. Some familiar faces even appeared on the jumbotron to help commemorate the occasion (Former Raptors guard Muggsy Bogues definitely got the loudest cheer from the fans).

And it wasn’t just a stroll down memory lane that helped celebrate The Raptor’s legacy — all of Toronto’s team mascots were in attendance to help The Rap with its daily duties. Joining them as well was as a number of NBA mascots from around the league, including the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Moondog mascot who got booed when he entered the stadium — poor Moondog.

Despite never winning the NBA Mascot of the Year award, The Raptor is widely known around the league as one of the most entertaining and hardest working. In 2016, Sports Illustrated ranked The Raptor number one in their list of the league’s best mascots noting that its hijinks are unmatched: including invading a Toronto city council meeting to celebrate a playoff series victory, rubbing a bald guy’s head and even dropping a TV down a set of stairs at the ACC.

So, on The Raptor’s 1,000th home game (which doesn’t include the time The Raptor torn its Achilles and was sidelined for part of a season), Toronto and the rest of the league was happy to celebrate.

That was the highlight of Tuesday night’s game.

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