DeRozan, Ross hot as Raptors thrash Bucks
TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan had 30 points, and Terrence Ross added 25 as the Toronto Raptors beat the Milwaukee Bucks 122-100 on Monday.
The victory was Toronto’s third straight, and ninth in their past 10 games.
Kyle Lowry had 18 points and seven assists for the Raptors (17-7), while DeMarre Carroll had 13 points, and Jonas Valanciunas finished with 11 points and a gamehigh 13 rebounds.
The Raptors, who were coming off a 101-94 win in Boston that saw them claw back from a 14-point deficit, looked poised for an easy victory over the Bucks, cruising to a 26-point advantage before the first half was over.
But a sloppy third-quarter saw the Bucks cut the deficit to 10 points — and an irate Raptors coach Dwane Casey pace the sidelines in frustration.
Toronto led 92-82 to start the fourth quarter, and then Ross almost single-handedly wrested the game from the Bucks’ grasp. Ross hit Toronto’s first four buckets, including a pair of three-pointers that put the Raptors back up by 20 points in barely three minutes. Cory Joseph found Ross alone in front of the Bucks’ bench for the first three, and Ross ran back upcourt with a salute to the sellout Air Canada Centre crowd of 19,800 fans.
The athletic forward elicited groans from the crowd when he missed on a dunk on Toronto’s next trip down the floor, but his mishap could be forgiven after a solid 10-for-17 shooting night. Lowry’s back-to-back threes midway through the fourth put Toronto up by 23 and the game out of reach.
The Raptors shot 50 per cent on the night and 54 per cent from threepoint range, while the Bucks went just 4-of-23 from long range.
Toronto has won 12 of 13 meetings with Milwaukee, going back to the 2013-14 season. The Raptors are 10-3 against Eastern Conference opponents this season, all three losses coming at the hands of last season’s playoff nemesis Cleveland.
The Raptors are in Philadelphia to face the 76ers on Wednesday, and return home to host the Atlanta Hawks on Friday.
NOTE: A year ago Monday, the Bucks stopped the Golden State Warriors’ win streak at 24 games, the longest win streak to open a season in NBA history.