Lowry has triple-double against Nets
TORONTO — Kyle Lowry had his 11th career triple-double, DeMar DeRozan scored 31 points and the Toronto Raptors won their ninth straight meeting with Brooklyn by routing the Nets 120-87 on Friday night.
Serge Ibaka scored 18 points and Jonas Valanciunas had 14 as Toronto won its eighth consecutive home game and improved to 10-1 at Air Canada Centre.
It was the second triple-double of the season for Lowry, who finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists.
Toronto scored a seasonhigh 74 points in the paint.
“They were in the paint all night,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. “It was drives and we didn’t protect the rim at all.”
Nik Stauskas scored 22 points in his Brooklyn debut and Isaiah Whitehead had 13 for the Nets in their most lopsided defeat of the season. Brooklyn’s previous worst loss was a 107-86 blowout at New York on Oct. 27. The Nets lost by more than 14 points for the second time.
Nets guard Allen Crabbe (sore left knee) and forward DeMarre Carroll (rest) both got the night off. Brooklyn was playing the second game of a backto-back, and its third in four days.
With Carroll and Crabbe unavailable, Brooklyn’s recently acquired duo of Jahlil Okafor and Stauskas made their Nets debuts.
Stauskas made five of his seven 3-point attempts, but the rest of the Nets shot 2 for 16 from long range.
Okafor had 10 points and four rebounds in 23 minutes on his 22nd birthday.
“I felt rusty, had some cobwebs on me, but just to be able to get out there, run up and down and play basketball, was great,” Okafor said
The Nets finished with 24 turnovers, one shy of their season worst. Crabbe and Carroll are both expected to return for Sunday’s game against Indiana. —AP