Raptors Beat Bobcats 107-103
Posted December 30, 2009 9:50 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Chris Bosh scored 33 points and Andrea Bargnani had 28 as the Toronto Raptors defeated the Charlotte Bobcats 107-103 at Wednesday to extend their season-best win streak to five games.
Marco Belinelli added 13 points off the bench for Toronto. Stephen Jackson scored 30, Raymond Felton scored 23 and Gerald Wallace had 15 for the Bobcats, who made 23 turnovers leading to 33 points.
The Bobcats had a one-point lead at the half and led by eight in the third quarter, but Toronto came back and took a four-point lead into the fourth.
The Raptors had a seven-point lead with five minutes left in the game, but the Bobcats cut that to one point with 3:53 to go when Jackson hit two free throws.
Wallace put the Bobcats ahead 101-100 with 1:43 left on a driving lay-up after Bargnani missed a shot. Bosh put Toronto back in the lead 102-101 with a lay-up,
Bargnani’s three-pointer with 10.9 seconds left put Toronto ahead by four and Bosh sealed it with two free throws with three seconds left after the Bobcats cut the lead to two.
The Raptors lost Hedo Turkoglu for the second half with what the team was described as a contusion of the right knee. He had two points and five assists in 14 minutes.
The Raptors were out to avenge an embarrassing 116-81 loss to the Bobcats on Nov. 25 in Charlotte, which came at a time when the Raptors were 7-8 and seemed to be putting things together.
The 35-point margin of victory was a franchise record for the Bobcats was their franchise record and it sent the Raptors reeling into a five-game losing streak.
The Raptors led 31-26 after the first quarter led by DeMar DeRozan’s eight points and six each from Bosh and Bargnani.
Nazr Mohammed and Raymond Felton scored six first-quarter points for the Bobcats, who shot 73 per cent from the field while the Raptors shot 44 per cent.
The Raptors opened a 38-30 lead in the second quarter only to have the Bobcats score 11 consecutive points, the final five by Stephen Graham, to take a 41-38 lead with 6:16 left in the half.
The half ended with Charlotte leading 56-55 on Felton’s 22-foot jump shot in the final second. Jarrett Jack missed a technical free throw to start the third quarter.
The technical was called on Charlotte head coach Larry Brown who confronted the officials at the end of the half. He was upset by a foul call on Wallace that sent Marco Belinelli to the line for two free throws, which he made with 6.7 seconds left.
The Bobcats led by as many as eight points in the third quarter but it ended with the Raptors leading 84-80 on Belinelli’s three-pointer at the buzzer after Weems blocked Graham’s shot.
With 28 seconds left in the third there was a skirmish after Marcus Banks shoved Gerald Wallace down and out of bounds under Toronto’s basket. Banks and Wallace were given personal fouls and Banks and Graham were given technical fouls, but no free throws were taken.
The Bobcats entered Wednesday’s game with a 1-13 road record. Only the New Jersey Nets at 1-16 are worse on the road.
