DeRozan leads Raptors through Warriors attack
Posted March 4, 2012 8:51 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan had 25 points and the Toronto Raptors blanketed high-scoring Golden State en route to an 83-75 win over the Warriors on Sunday night.
Leandro Barbosa added 18 points in a reserve role for the Raptors (12-25), who limited Golden State to 36.3 per cent shooting for just their fifth win in the last 16 games. It was the first meeting between the teams since the Warriors pulverized Toronto, scoring 84 first-half points in a 138-100 laugher in California last March.
Golden State wasn’t laughing this time; the run-and-gun Warriors (14-20) were held to one fast-break point and turned the ball over 14 times, leading to 18 Toronto points.
David Lee had 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Warriors, who fell to 2-3 on a six-game road trip which wraps up Monday night in Washington.
Golden State broke out to a nine-point halftime lead but hit just two of its first 12 shots to open the third quarter, allowing the Raptors to climb to within six. A Lee jumper ended the drought but Toronto continued to chip away at the deficit, a DeRozan layup making it a 56-54 game with three minutes left.
Barbosa’s floating jumper in the lane evened the score in the final minute, and a turnover on the Warriors’ next possession led to a 2-on-1 that DeRozan finished off with an alley-oop dunk of a Jerryd Bayless feed as Toronto led 60-58 entering the fourth.
A Barbosa three-pointer stretched the advantage to five early in the final quarter, and he found Amir Johnson with a nifty pass for an uncontested dunk near the halfway point of the frame to give Toronto a 73-66 edge. Golden State closed to within four on an Ellis layup, but Barbosa followed with a three from the left corner and the Raptors held on from there.
Both teams were frigid to start, combining to miss 17 of their first 23 shots in the opening half of the first quarter. A Dorell Wright three-pointer put the Warriors up 14-10, and Lee added a driving two-handed dunk in the closing moments of the period as Golden State enjoyed a 20-18 advantage after one.
Klay Thompson connected from long range near the three minute mark of the quarter to extend the Warriors’ lead to six, and a Lee 17-foot jumper with 30 seconds left completed a 6-of-7 first-half shooting performance for the star forward as the Warriors went into the break ahead 47-38.
Notes: Toronto overcame a pair of late injury scares. Barbosa went down in a heap midway through the fourth quarter but was quickly helped off, while Amir Johnson appeared to slip on the court and injure his knee but left on his own power. … The Warriors came into Sunday averaging 120.2 points in their previous five games against the Raptors. … A vocal contingent of fans celebrating Lithuanian Heritage Night cheered when Raptors F Linas Kleiza entered the game late in the fourth quarter. Kleiza is the only active Lithuanian-born player in the NBA.
