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 Held to 39 points in the first half, the Raptors poured in 37
points in the third quarter to snap the Cleveland Cavaliers'
six-game winning with a 98-91 victory on Friday night.
The Raptors shot only 32.7 percent from the field while going
4-for-4 in free throws in the first half.
"It's unbelievable," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "I thought the
lid in the first half was on the basket. I mean Amir (forward
Johnson) had point-blank layups that he normally makes and just
couldn't. But I like the way we gave ourselves a chance to with our
defense."
Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said, "We came out a little flat in the
third quarter. But to our guys' credit, we stayed with it."
Guard/forward Terrence Ross scored 20 points to lead the Raptors
(30-25) and also did a good job defending Cavaliers guard Kyrie
Irving, who was 3-for-16 from the field and finished with 17 points
on the strength of 10-for-12 free-throw shooting.
"(Ross') length was really a key asset against (Irving)," Casey
said. "The one thing you want to do with a young man like that is
slow him down. He's one of the best guys with the ball, he's almost
got a string on the ball, so it makes it doubly tough to handle
him."
Ross said Irving was not his man to cover when the game started.
"Kyrie kind of switched in the first quarter and I ended up guarding
him the whole game," he said. "He can score a lot of different ways,
so you just try to slow him down."
Center Jonas Valanciunas scored 10 points in the third quarter to
lead Toronto's surge and finished with 18 points and eight rebounds.
Guard Kyle Lowry added 14 points and nine assists for the Raptors
(30-25). Guard DeMar DeRozan also scored 14 points for Toronto.
"We did it with our defense," Casey said. "There are going to be
nights when the ball just won't fall and that's when your defense is
going to have to carry you."
Forward Luol Deng led the Cavaliers (22-34) with 21 points and 11
rebounds. Toronto-born forward Tristan Thompson added 13 points and
nine rebounds. Irving had nine assists.
The Cavaliers' win streak was their longest since they had eight
victories in a row from March 8 to March24, 2010.
"We didn't really come out in the third quarter like we did at the
start of the game," said Cavs rookie forward Anthony Bennett, also a
Toronto native. "But we fought to the end. We've just got to come
out and play strong like we've been doing."
Bennett scored nine points coming off the bench in his hometown and
said he was not nervous. "I was calm. I let the game come to me," he said. "It would have
been nice to get the win."
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The Raptors used their third-quarter blitz to take an 11-point lead
into the fourth and stretched it 15 on a 3-pointer by forward
Patrick Patterson.
Cavaliers guard Jarrett Jack made two free throws to cut the lead to
10, but Lowry answered with a 3-pointer. Valanciunas put in a layup
for his 14th point of the second half and a 13-point Toronto lead
with 1:47 to play.
Jack hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to six with 45.7 left. Toronto
led by eight on a driving layup by guard-forward John Salmons.
Deng's jumper cut the lead to six. The lead was down to five after
Deng hit two free throws with 4.6 seconds to play, but DeRozan came
back to sink two foul shots.
"We gave ourselves a chance, but Toronto had built too big of a
lead," Brown said.
The Cavaliers took a five-point lead into the second half, but the
Raptors went ahead 51-50 on a pull-up jumper by Ross with 8:18 left
in the third quarter. A steal and layup by Ross followed by
Patterson's 3-pointer bumped the Raptors' lead to 71-58. Toronto led
76-65 after three quarters.
The Cavaliers were 6-for-11 from the line in the quarter.
"We missed the free throws and missed some shots we normally make,"
Brown said.
Bennett said, "Missing easy ones like that, it hurts."
The Cavaliers led 44-39 lead at the half and 22-16 after the first
quarter. Cleveland center Spencer Hawes contributed five points in
the first quarter after coming off the bench and finished with seven
points and 10 rebounds.
NOTES: C Spencer Hawes was on the bench Friday night after the
Cavaliers acquired him in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers on
Thursday. "He's a guy who can space the floor and is a very good
passer, plays hard, very intelligent player," Cavaliers coach Mike
Brown said. "We're a pick-and-roll team, so he'll help us in that
area." ... G Nando De Colo was inactive for the game after the
Raptors acquired him in a trade on Thursday that sent F Austin Daye
to the San Antonio Spurs. ... The Cavaliers have two Toronto-born
players, rookie F Anthony Bennett, who was the first Canadian
selected No. 1 overall in the NBA Draft, and third-year F Tristan
Thompson. ... F Amir Johnson started Friday, a move that put F
Patrick Patterson on the bench after he started four straight games.
Johnson missed two games with a sore ankle and was a reserve for the
past two games.
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