Mavs Lose To Raptors
TORONTO — On Sunday, the Toronto Raptors never had the lead against the Sacramento Kings.
On Tuesday, the Raptors led every step of the way and held on to defeat the Dallas Mavericks 103-99.
They did it with a fast start, leading by as many as 18 points in the first quarter.
“We just have to have a sense of urgency right out of the gate and understand that teams are coming after us,” said guard DeMar DeRozan, who led Toronto with 28 points. “We can’t wait and we have to be the ones to throw the first punch and that’s what we did tonight.”
“We had our (butt) kicked at the beginning of the game,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “We knew they were going to come out hard. They did the exact same thing (in winning) in Dallas. They’re coming off a tough loss, they’re aggressive by nature. We really knew it, we talked about it and we didn’t handle it well. Frankly, it was embarrassing.”
Guard Kyle Lowry compiled 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Raptors (19-12) and center Bismack Biyombo had nine points and a career-best 20 rebounds.
“He giveth, he taketh but I tell you what, he is a man in the paint,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said of Biyombo. “When they are driving and looking to see where he is, when he gets those rebounds, I would like to see how many times he gets fouled in those situations.”
The Mavericks (15-13) cut the lead to two points with 11.6 seconds to play when forward Jeremy Evans made a layup and was fouled. He missed his free throw and Toronto forward completed a 16-point night by
hitting two free throws.
Forward Luis Scola added 15 points and nine rebounds for Toronto and guard Cory Joseph had 12 points.
Forward Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 20 points and seven rebounds, forward Wesley Matthews added 15 points.
Nowitzki is nine points short of tying center Shaquille O?Neal for sixth place overall in career NBA scoring at 28,596 points.
Each team had players leave the game.
Mavericks guard Deron Williams was limited to seven points when he left the game in the third quarter with a hamstring injury and did not return.
“My hamstring’s been a little tight the last couple of games,” Williams said, holding out hope that he could play Wednesday in Brooklyn. “The hamstrings) were a little tighter than normal. Then as soon as I went back out there, I went to plant and push off and just felt a little pop.”
Raptors forward Patrick Patterson left the game at halftime with flu-like symptoms while James Johnson was a late scratch for Toronto because of a sprained left ankle. Those absences left Toronto with nine healthy players.
“It was super strange but we have a resilient team,” Lowry said. Tonight everybody stepped up.”
The Raptors led by 32-16 after the first quarter, their biggest lead of the season after an opening quarter. They also allowed the fewest points in a first quarter this season.
The Mavericks pulled back to within five points early in the second quarter but the Raptors took a 49-36 lead into the intermission.
Matthews hit a 3-pointer with 1:15 left in the third quarter to reduce the Raptors’ lead to three points. The Raptors led 72-67 after three quarters when Joseph made a driving layup in the final second.
Nowitzki’s 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter again cut Toronto’s lead to three points. Lowry and Joseph then hit consecutive 3-pointers, extending the lead to 86-74 with 7:19 remaining.
After a Mavericks’ miss, Ross came back to make a 3-pointer and Toronto lead by 15 with 6:46 left.
A dunk by guard Justin Anderson reduced the lead to nine and a jumper by Evans had the lead down to seven.
Villanueva made a short jumper and a layup to cut the lead to four points approaching the final minute.
Lowry made one free throw with 45.1 seconds left to put the Raptors up by six. Villanueva hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to three points. After Lowry hit two free throws, Barea hit a 3-pointer to trim them the lead to two. DeRozan’s layup put Toronto up by four with 15.5 seconds left.
“They came out really strong,” Nowitzki said. “They were into us defensively and we couldn’t get anything going there. We kind of weathered the storm in the second quarter and stayed within striking distance. The third quarter was good for us, kind of got us back into the game and then the first six minutes of the fourth quarter were tough.”
