The Toronto Raptors have added another accolade to their record-breaking season.
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DeMar DeRozan scored 26 points, Kyle Lowry had 12 of his 21 in the fourth quarter and the Raptors beat Charlotte 96-90 on Tuesday night, handing the Hornets back-to-back losses for the first time in more than two months.
Neither team was able to score until Joseph and Lowry made consecutive shots to boost the Raptors’ lead to 13 with 7:01 to play. Walker woke up, but too little, too late as he finished with 11 points.
His stuffing the stat sheet to such a degree has helped Charlotte clinch a playoff berth, but the team is still jockeying for seeding position in the tight Eastern Conference race.
PHILADELPHIA Carl Landry scored 22 points to lead Philadelphia to a 107-93 victory over the injury-depleted New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night, ensuring that the 76ers won’t tie their own league record for fewest victories in an 82-game season.
Mercifully, the Raptors’ regular season comes to its conclusion a week from Wednesday in Brooklyn against the lowly and roster-challenged Nets.
A 3 by Williams brought Charlotte within six with just over a minute left, but DeRozan answered with a basket. He also shot 46.6 percent overall, 33.3 percent from long-range, and 87.2 percent on 9.9 free-throw attempts per-game.
Batum has been a valuable contributor to the Hornets this season, averaging 15.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.2 assists. Grinding out wins without Batum figures to be hard, especially beginning Tuesday against the East’s No. 2 seed in Toronto. And they did get into the lane for buckets, as did Joan Valanciunas who had six points early working inside on the combination of Zeller and Al Jefferson.
“We just have to be more disciplined at the end”, DeRozan said.
When he was on the floor, the rookie spent a lot of time matched up defensively on Kemba Walker, who can go off any given minutes. “You’ve got take what the schedule gives you or whoever the standings give you; you’ve got to look at it but you can’t sit here and say, I want to play them, I’d much rather play them, we match up better”. “From there you’ve just got to kind of play ideal”.
The capacity crowd of 19,800 at the Air Canada Centre – that included Blue Jays legend and baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar – was the 76th straight sellout, a stretch that goes back to November of 2014. The team got off to a slow start against the Toronto Raptors, scoring just 16 points in the first quarter with only one make from 3-point range.
Charlotte Hornets’ Jeremy Lin (7) works to control the ball as Toronto Raptors’ Cory Joseph defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, April 5, 2016, in Toronto.
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A DeRozan jumper late in the third quarter put the Raptors up by 19 points, their biggest lead of the game, and they rode a 75-59 advantage into the fourth.
