Holly MacKenzie – Raptors.com
Trevor Ariza made a pair of free throws with eight seconds remaining to push the Rockets lead to five. After struggling from the floor for much of the contest, Toronto dropped its second consecutive game, and fell to Houston 112-109. The loss drops the Raptors to 48-23 on the season.
The Raptors opened the game by immediately falling behind by seven. They would trail for the entire first quarter before turning things around in the second. Thanks to a boost from Bismack Biyombo’s defence and Norman Powell and Luis Scola’s offence, the Raptors exploded for a 37-point quarter, and closed the half on a 25-10 run to lead by four at the break.
After a strong second quarter, the Raptors cooled off in the second half, and couldn’t stop the Rockets once they started to heat up to start the fourth quarter. Toronto shot just 35 percent while giving up 45 percent shooting to the Rockets in the second half. The Raptors attempted just nine free throws after the halftime break, and tempers flared as they let the officiating crew know they weren’t happy about it.
The game had an unusual ending as the Raptors finished with Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan who in the locker room after both picked up back-to-back technicals in separate, heated conversations with the officials. DeRozan left with 2:55 remaining in the fourth, and Lowry followed with 25.6 seconds to go.
Jonas Valanciunas had 16 points and 18 rebounds in 30 minutes of action. He had six offensive rebounds, and added two assists, two steals, and a blocked shot as he continues to look good following a three-game absence with a left hand contusion.
Luis Scola had a solid game against his former team, scoring 16 points on 6-for-11 field goals. Scola played 24 minutes, made 4-of-6 attempts from beyond the arc, and added five rebounds, an assist and a steal.
“We’ve got to be able to buckle down in tough situations like that. If things aren’t going our way, understand we still have to get stops, we still have to figure out ways to put the ball in the basket.” – DeMar DeRozan on needing to keep composure regardless of the situation
32… Points, 11 rebounds, 13 assists for James Harden. 26… Free throw attempts for Toronto, compared to 35 for the Raptors. Toronto made just 18 of their attempts (69 percent). 52… Percent shooting for the Rockets, including 55 percent shooting from beyond the arc. In comparison, Toronto shot 42 percent for the game, as well as 42 percent from deep.
“I thought it was the same game that we had in Toronto [against the Rockets]. The three-ball got involved. We had to take away one thing that [James] Harden was doing. You can’t give him the points and the assists and he had both.” – Dwane Casey on a big performance from James Harden “It’s a game of runs. We got back in the game, but at the end our defence wasn’t, we weren’t there defensively. I personally didn’t play well at all, missed free throws, missed shots. I take a lot of responsibility in that game tonight. If I played half, a little bit better, we win that game.” – Kyle Lowry on a rough outing against the Rockets “I think we still moved the ball well. We missed a couple of shots when we were trying to make a push for the lead, they turned it up on the defensive end, started to gamble a bit more, forced things to go their way on a couple possessions.” – DeMar DeRozan on Houston stepping things up in the second half “We missed some easy shots, missed some free throws and it just set in.To be a winning team, you can’t do that. That’s what I told the team in there. You’ve got to have DeMar and Kyle in the game. We can’t lose our best two players and expect to win. The word we used before the game was discipline and we didn’t have it down the stretch. That’s something we’ve got to learn. Every game is not going to be a piece of art. You’ve got to win ugly sometimes. If we kept our guys together down the stretch, keep churning, keep churning, we’d have been right there at the end of the game.” – Dwane Casey on frustrations getting the best of his team
Up next: The Raptors will finish this three-game road trip in New Orleans where they’ll play the Pelicans in a back-to-back on Saturday at 7 P.M. ET.
