DeRozan leads Raps season-best showing

THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO — The biggest moment of the night for Ed Davis came midway through the first quarter, when the Raptors rookie tugged off his sweats and checked into the game.

Davis went on to score 11 points, grab six rebounds, block two shots and alter several others in his NBA debut Wednesday, helping Toronto to a 127-108 victory over the Washington Wizards in the team’s best offensive performance of the season.

“Just being able to part of a win, my first NBA game were probably the highlights,” Davis said.

Andrea Bargnani added 18 points and eight rebounds, while Sonny Weems also finished with 18 points as seven Raptors reached double figures before a crowd of 15,209 at Air Canada Centre.

Jerryd Bayless and Leandro Barbosa scored 16 points apiece, while Jose Calderon finished with 11 points and eight assists as the Raptors snapped a two-game losing streak with their highest point total of the season.

The Raptors (7-11) shot 58 per cent from the field for their highest percentage of the season.

Davis, the Raptors’ No. 13 draft pick out of North Carolina, got a late start to the season after he injured his knee playing in a pickup game in September that required surgery. He was sent to the Erie BayHawks for conditioning and played two games before the Raptors recalled him a few days ago.

“For a couple of months it was pretty rough, just sitting around and watching the guys,” said Davis, whose mom was at Wednesday’s game. “I just wanted to play hard and whatever happens is going to happens. It’s good to get back there wearing a Raptors jersey for the first time.”

Davis had an immediate impact when he entered the game, grabbing a rebound for a tip-in that tied the game 19-19. Less than a minute had gone by before he’d grabbed another two boards and scored on another tip-in.

“I thought Ed was good,” Raptors coach Jay Triano said. “He’s got that look about him, where it doesn’t look like he’s giving you (much) but then all of a sudden he is at the rim blocking shots. He had a couple of blocked shots, a couple of tip-ins, and he was right there with his hand above the rim.

“I was pleased and we will see how he responds to that. We put him in early, knowing that he was going to come in at the six-minute mark and he was ready, which is great.”

Davis shot 5-for-7 from the field in slightly more than 24 minutes

JaVale McGee led the Wizards with 21 points with John Wall adding 19 and Andray Blatche 17.

“Just an embarrassing effort,” Wizards coach Flip Saunders said. “Listen when you are out-rebounded by 20 (52-30) and when you give up (62) points in the paint, that’s effort. That’s just not digging in and fighting.”

The Raptors rebounded from a sluggish loss to Atlanta on Sunday, moving the ball around with authority against the Wizards (5-12).

“This is what we have to do to get a mismatch somewhere,” Calderon said.

The Raptors (7-11) raced out to a 34-25 first-quarter lead and were up by 20 heading into the dressing room at halftime. They kept up the pressure to lead by 25 after Barbosa hit a three-pointer with four minutes to play in the third.

The lead climbed to 26 when Davis scored on a layup with 3:16 left in the quarter and the Raptors took a 101-81 advantage into the fourth.

Linas Kleiza’s turnaround hook shot stretched the Raptors’ lead to 27 points with 4:45 left in the game.

Notes: Amir Johnson started at power forward and tweaked his ankle while scoring four points in 21 minutes. He said it was nothing serious. Joey Dorsey started in Sunday’s loss to Atlanta, replacing Reggie Evans, who suffered a fractured right foot in Friday’s loss in Boston. Evans will be out eight weeks after undergoing surgery Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C. … Raptors forward Peja Stojakovic didn’t dress for the second game in a row because of a swollen left knee. … Washington was without Hilton Armstrong, who was serving a one-game suspension for his flagrant foul on Monday against Miami. … The Raptors host Oklahoma City on Friday.