DeRozan scores 29 points to lead Raptors over 76ers
TORONTO 102 PHILADELPHIA 86
TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan scored 16 of his 29 points in the third quarter and the Toronto Raptors won for the 10th consecutive time at the Air Canada Centre, beating the Philadelphia 76ers 102-86 on Saturday.
Serge Ibaka added 17 points, while Delon Wright finished with 14, and Kyle Lowry and Jonas Valanciunas chipped in with 12 points apiece.
The Raptors (23-8) boosted their league-best home record to 12-1. The victory was No. 12 in their last 13 outings.
Dario Saric led the Sixers (14-18) with 17 points, while Joel Embiid added 14.
Two nights after digging themselves out of a 22-point hole in Philly, the Raptors led by a mere four points midway through the third quarter, but closed the frame with a 16-2 run that sent Toronto into the fourth with an insurmountable 81-63 lead.
A three-pointer by Saric capped a 13-4 Sixers run that cut the lead to 12 points with 5:40 to play. But that was as close as Philadelphia would come. With 4:31 to play, Lowry launched a long pass to a sprinting Wright for an easy layup and 16-point lead.
Norm Powell’s emphatic dunk with 1:23 to play was the punctuation mark on an entertaining evening.
The Raptors improved to 18-1 against Philly, including their 114-109 victory on Thursday. The Raptors trailed the Sixers by 22 points early in the second half of that game, but fought back to win, due in large part to DeRozan, who had a career-high 45 points and six three-pointers on the night.
DeRozan was 4-for-7 from beyond the arc on Saturday.
“Just shooting the ball with conviction,” coach Dwane Casey said of DeRozan’s three-point improvement. “He’s always had the green light to shoot it. We’ve always encouraged him to do it. His nature is one of the best in the league as far as getting to his sweet spot. Nobody works more on his three-point shot than he does.”
Embiid played his first game in Toronto after missing his first seven here. The big man from Cameroon missed two full seasons with foot injuries after he was drafted third overall in 2014.
Ibaka led the way with 13 points in a first quarter that saw the Raptors lead by just four points, and when Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot drilled a buzzerbeating three, it sent the game into the second tied up at 27-27.
The Sixers were within three midway through the second, but the Raptors outscored their visitors 14-8 the rest of the way, and took a 55-46 lead at the halftime break.
The Raptors play next in Dallas on Boxing Day, then play at Oklahoma City the following night before returning home to host Atlanta on Dec. 29.
Casey and DeRozan are irked the Raptors aren’t part of the much-hyped Christmas Day NBA lineup.
“I wish we were in that group,” Casey said. “I think we’ve earned that right in the last few years to be in that. I don’t know if it’s advertising. I don’t know what the reason is. I think our record is to the point where we deserve to be one of the teams.”