Raptors Beat Cavs To Remain Perfect In Pre-Season
Posted October 22, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Raptors were short-staffed Sunday night, but it really didn’t make much of a difference.
Even without Chris Bosh and T.J. Ford, the Raptors snuck past the Cleveland Cavaliers and remained perfect on the pre-season with a 91-90 win at the Air Canada Centre.
Fred Jones scored 22 points to lead the Raptors and the team is now 6-0 in the pre-season, their best exhibition start in franchise history.
Kris Humphries (pictured) finished with 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Raptors.
Not surprisingly, LeBron James led the Cavs with 21 points and six assists, while former Raptor Donyell Marshall added 17 points and nine rebounds.
With Bosh and Ford nursing injuries, the game provided several of Toronto’s role players a chance to showcase their skills against Cleveland starters.
The subs looked great, with Jones blazing up and down the floor as the Dinos rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit. Humphries gave the club a two-point lead with 43 seconds left and the ACC crowd roared as if it were March, not October.
Cavs guard Sasha Pavlovic had a chance to tie the game seconds later, but missed a free throw sealing Toronto’s victory.
Bosh missed his third game of the pre-season with plantar fascitis, an inflammation of the plantar fascia ligament that runs along the bottom of the foot. Ford missed the game with a sore hamstring, while Andrea Bargnani sat out with a sore ankle.
Bosh missed the final 13 games of 2005-06 with a hand injury, and the Raptors went 1-12.
“What separates teams is: `Can you survive an injury to one of your better players?”‘ Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said.
“We’re just trying to be careful with Chris, we feel like if it was regular season, he would play through the pain, but what we’re trying to do is get him pain free,” said Mitchell. “Could he play with it? Yeah. Chris is tough, he could play.”
The Raptors close out their pre-season on the road with games Wednesday at Boston and Friday at Chicago. They open the season November 1 in New Jersey, and host Milwaukee for their home-opener on November 3.
