Cavs hold off Raptors

Kyrie Irving scored 26 points including the winning basket and LeBron James added 21 as the Cleveland Cavaliers staved off several fourthquarter Toronto comeback attempts Friday to defeat the Raptors 94-91.

DeMar DeRozan, who combined with Jonas Valanciunas for 72 points in Toronto’s seasonopening win over Detroit, led the way again with 32 points. Kyle Lowry had 17 while Valanciunas had 10 points and 17 rebounds.

James had a relatively quiet night, despite registering some sumptuous assists, as Irving and Kevin Love dominated the scoresheet early. James hit the 10-point plateau late in the third quarter to extend his double-digit scoring streak to 719 games. Love finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. The Raptors, who had trailed by as many as 12, closed to 66-65 with a 9-0 run late in the third quarter. Cleveland led 71-67 entering the final quarter. Toronto mounted another charge, cutting the margin to 76-75 on a 6-0 run that was fuelled by two Cory Joseph baskets and one from rookie Jakob Poeltl.

But each time the Raptors rallied, Cleveland answered. Toronto kept coming and finally tied it up at 86-86 on Lowry’s two free throws with 3:42 remaining.

Lowry put Toronto ahead, after being fouled by James, for the first time 89-88 on another free throw with 2:37 left. Three James free throws gave Cleveland a 91-89 lead but a DeRozan dunk tied it. Then Irving sank a three-pointer to make it 9491.

A review gave Toronto the ball with .3 seconds remaining but Lowry missed a Hail Mary shot from long range.

DeRozan’s final basket in the third quarter gave him 66 points over the first two games of a season, surpassing Vince Carter’s record of 65 set at the start of the 2003-04 season.

The evening was not a thing of beauty with the each teams having 18 turnovers, but the ending was exciting.