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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - Moments after the most memorable game of his young life came to a close, an usually large crowd gathered around the locker of Bruno Caboclo, just a few feet to the left of DeMar DeRozan's.

"You play one game and you get this?," joked DeRozan, who is accustomed to seeing the media jockey for position around his locker.

Lou Williams chanted the rookie's name over and over, echoing the screams of a sellout crowd at the Air Canada Centre Friday, and took photos of the scrum on his phone.

"Your mom's going to love this," said Williams.

Smiling ear-to-ear, the 19-year-old Caboclo searched for the words to describe a night that no one saw coming.

Concluding a franchise-longest seven-game home stand, with LeBron James and the Cavaliers on deck the following evening, the Raptors were understandably wary of the upstart Milwaukee Bucks, who came in with a 7-5 record having won three in row. The result: their second-most lopsided victory in team history.

"I thought the mental focus was great," Dwane Casey said following his team's impressive 41-point rout of Milwaukee. "No one in that locker room was even talking about tomorrow night."

The Raptors trailed for seconds early in the game before taking control. Their lead continued to grow and by the end of the third quarter they were up 101-57, igniting chants for Caboclo, the 20th pick in June's draft who has quickly become a cult favourite in Toronto.

On queue, the rookie entered to a rousing ovation. Fans repeated his name in unison. They used it to replace "defence" when the Bucks had the ball. "Let's go Raptors" became "Let's go Bruno."

Shortly after his first shot rimmed out, Caboclo caught an alley-oop pass from Williams for his first NBA bucket. The building was shaking.

"[There were] butterflies in my stomach," the Brazilian forward admitted after the game. "Everybody's saying my name. It's incredible."

The biggest and most promising takeaway from his 12 minutes of action, like his performance in the pre-season and Summer League: he showed no fear. He was confident in his jump shoot - hitting a pair of three-balls, one from the corner and a step-back jumper over Ersan Ilyasova - and he showed off his wingspan on defence, swatting Nate Wolters' shot from behind.

"I thought it was special," Casey said. "The kid's a beautiful kid. Like any other kid he's learning and growing in the NBA. As a coach, I see him growing everyday and know what he needs to work on, but it was great to get an opportunity to get him in the game."

Led by starters Kyle Lowry (20 points, nine rebounds on the night) and Jonas Valanciunas (18 points, 12 rebounds), the Raptors dropped 37 first-quarter points on Milwaukee, the NBA's fourth ranked defensive team entering the game. 

But it was Toronto's bench that really put the game out of reach. Chuck Hayes pushed around the Bucks' bigs, Greivis Vasquez had 11 points in his best outing of the season and Williams led all scorers with 22, beating the buzzer with three-pointers at the end of both the first and second quarters.

Shooting 52 per cent from the field, 15-for-25 from long range and out-rebounding Milwaukee by 27, the Raptors more than overcame a 1-for-8 shooting performance from DeRozan, their leading scorer. One of Caboclo's treys, midway through the fourth quarter, gave Toronto a 52-point advantage, the largest lead in franchise history.

"Guys came out with a professional approach," Casey said. "We thought it was going to be a tough battle. We knew that they had been playing well so our guys were focused and came in with a business-like approach, which we needed and wanted."

The Raptors finished their 6-1 home stand the way they started it.

Two weeks ago they put together one of their most complete efforts of the season - a 19-point wire-to-wire victory over the Wizards. Since that night, they crushed what's looking like a historically terrible 76ers team, dropped a tough game to the Bulls after a flat third quarter and needed late-game rallies to steal wins over Orlando, Utah and Memphis.

In the end, they outscored opponents by a total of 111 points (15.9 per contest) over that stretch.

"It's very difficult to do, to play at home this many games in a row," Casey said. "Psychologically, it's tough to go through the grind, the monotony of every other day or whatever the schedule was. I think our guys mentally fought through that and that's something that's a credit to them. That's what we've been preaching, is to fight through things mentally, be focused, don't let outside distractions get you outside what you want to do. So I've been relatively pleased. I really like the focus of our team right now. We've got to maintain it, be consistent with it. That's the main thing right now."

"You just stay focused, man," Hayes said. "You understand that it's a marathon, you understand that we're playing for something bigger than a seven-game home stand. You've got to win these games at home, you've got to protect home. Due to the fact that we've been lucky enough to have a seven-game home stand in November, December we're out there on that road and we're going to need each other."

That's when the real test begins. How will they fair when adversity hits? Will the chemistry they've raved about hold up?

"We really haven't hit the dog days of the season yet, December and January is where it hits you," Hayes said. "But we have a great group of veterans, a great group of guys, who know how to be professionals. If we slip up we hold each other accountable and that's very important in this locker room."

They will see four playoff caliber opponents over their next four games, two of them on the road, beginning with the James and the new-look Cavaliers in Cleveland on the second night of a back-to-back Saturday.

It's been nearly five years since the Raptors have defeated James, going back to his first stint in Ohio. Since then, he's had their number - mostly as a member of the Heat - winning 16 straight meetings with Toronto. He's one more victory away from tying Steve Nash for most consecutive wins (by a player) over the Raps. Overall, they're 32-7 against the King, with their last road win coming in 2004, his rookie year.

While the Cavaliers have struggled to find themselves on the defensive end with a newly formed big three, Washington has been undermanned in the absence of injured, and recently mended guard Bradley Beal, and the rest of the East has looked predictably average, the Raptors have taken advantage of their continuity and a forgiving early-season schedule.

"[It's] very significant," said Hayes. "Because it gives you that margin of error when you do hit those dog days in December and January."