The Toronto Raptors were hosting the Portland Trailblazers for the teams’ second and final regular season head-to-head match up. The 40-19 Raptors were looking to extend their franchise record 11 home game win streak, and the Trailblazers who dropped a tough game to the Boston Celtics the night before are battling to maintain their Western Conference playoff position.
Raptors’ rookie, Norman Powell received the surprise start at shooting guard, as Raptors head coach Dwane Casey wanted to do his best to disrupt the Blazers backcourt as much as he could from a defensive perspective. Casey’s goal was to keep Damian Lillard & C.J. McCollum, specifically, off the three point line or at the very least try to force them into tough shots from distance. Damian Lillard is currently second in the NBA with unassisted 3-point field goals (behind Stephen Curry), so putting a concerted effort towards limiting those looks was front of mind for the Raptors’ coaching staff. With Powell starting in DeMar DeRozan’s usual position, DeRozan started the game at small forward, taking James Johnson’s usual starting spot, with DeMarre Carroll still out of the lineup for Toronto.
The Toronto Raptors held a 58-52 halftime lead, and proceeded to extend it, heading into the fourth quarter 90-77, behind a strong 32 point effort for the Raptors in the 3rd quarter. The game high scorers, DeMar DeRozan and Damian Lillard, had 31 points and 28 points respectively heading into fourth quarter.
Damian Lillard was absolutely electric and kept the Blazers in the game, coming back from being down as many as 15 points. He showed the world, once again, why he should have been named an NBA All-Star, refusing to let the Blazers go down without a fight, scoring 22 points in the fourth quarter alone. Lillard finished with 50 points, nearly tying his career high 51 (set earlier this season in the Blazers’ blowout win over the Golden State Warriors). He put on a show for the crowd at the Air Canada Centre (ACC), and everyone watching from home – shooting 16 of 28, including six made 3-point field goals. He also made 12 of his 13 free throw attempts, while adding 3 rebounds and 5 assists.
With just 2.2. seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Lillard hit a three for the Blazers (giving him his 50 points on the night) to make it a one point game, 116-115 for the Raptors. DeMar DeRozan was then fouled with just 0.9 seconds left in the game, sending him to the line for two free throws.
Lillard Highlights:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFT27GudqGA]Leading up to these free throw attempts, DeMar DeRozan had tied Dominique Wilkins’ NBA single game record of consecutive free throws made without a miss, going 23 of 23, and DeRozan went on to temporarily break Wilkins’ record when he made his 24th attempt…but in the end it wouldn’t be his record to break, as DeRozan would have had to have made his final attempt, which wouldn’t fall, finishing the game making an incredible 24 of 25 from the free throw line. Dominique Wilkins’ record will stand for yet another day, but DeRozan has set a new mark of 24 straight free-throws made BEFORE a miss.
With that, the Raptors held on for a 117-115 nail-biting win over the Portland Trailblazers.
As a team, Toronto attempted a season high 38 free throws. Kyle Lowry went 9 of 15 from the line, missing an uncharacteristically high 6 free throws; he averages 85% from the free throw line on the season. Despite some missed free throws, Kyle Lowry poured in 28 points of his own, in addition to six assists, five rebounds, and two steals. Lowry currently leads the NBA in steals at a rate of 2.17 per game.
DeMar DeRozan was incredible from the free throw line, leading to his season high 38 points. He was just 7 of 19 from the field, but was relentless getting to the charity stripe, and made up for his shot not falling during the course of the game.
Norman Powell was coming off of an impressive 36 point performance for the Raptors 905 in a NBA D-League the night before and his confidence was evident, playing 22 minutes while posting ten points (including two 3-point shots) and 6 rebounds. Specifically, he was on fire in the third quarter, where he posted most of his numbers – including the ten points (on 3 of 3 shooting, and 2-2 from the line) and four of his six rebounds in the game.
Jonas Valanciunas earned his 14th double-double of the season, scoring 17 points (7 of 8 from the field) and pulling down 10 rebounds.
The Blazers’ C.J. McCollum, a front runner for the NBA Most Improved Player Award this season, scored 24 points (including four made 3-point field goals) and added five assists and two steals.
Lillard and McCollum combined for 74 points on the night, showing exactly why they are the second highest scoring backcourt in the NBA. DeRozan and Lowry are the NBA’s third highest scoring backcourt, and tallied 66 points between them in the game, after coming off a then season high 63 point performance (combined) the game before vs. Utah.
October’s Very Own and Raptors Global Ambassador, Drake, was in the building to see this game first hand, which lived up to expectations of being a display of pure scoring prowess from two of the NBA’s highest scoring backcourts. He spoke with the Raptors telecast team, Matt Devlin and Jack Armstrong, about the incredible job the city of Toronto did as the host of the 2016 NBA All-Star Weekend.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOXAAzEEFTA]The win extends the Raptors’ franchise best 12 game win streak at home, and marks the first time that the Toronto Raptors have won both games in the season series vs. the Portland Trailblazers since 1996-97. The Raptors have now improved to 41-19 on the season, will play host to the Houston Rockets on Sunday evening.
Postgame Reactions:
Damian Lillard
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2GnJvDOB2E]DeMar DeRozan
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJHIRLyJjps]Dwane Casey
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTCiiUm85Y8]Kyle Lowry
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiprD3OX1AA]Norman Powell
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