Raptors stars shine against Celtics
TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan led with 16 points as the Toronto Raptors cruised to a crucial 96-78 win over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.
The Raptors have a three-game lead over Boston for first place in the Atlantic Division and the NBA’s Eastern Conference. Both teams have four regular-season games remaining.
All-star guard Kyle Lowry finished with 13 points, five rebounds and five assists as the Raptors (56-22) snapped a two-game losing skid. It was Lowry’s highest scoring outing in the past four games.
Fred VanVleet came off the bench for 15 points while Delon Wright had eight points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
Marcus Morris had 21 for the Celtics (5325), who would have won the tiebreaker between the two teams and moved to just a game back of Toronto for first in the division and conference with a win.
Guard Terry Rozier had two points and nine rebounds in his return to the Celtics lineup after missing Tuesday’s 106-102 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. He had sat out with a left ankle sprain.
The Raptors had five losses in their past 10 heading into the game, including a 11090 defeat in Boston on Sunday followed by a 112-106 loss in Cleveland on Tuesday.
“There’s three times a year guys go through a malaise, a mental malaise,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “My many years in the NBA, I’ve seen it. Right before Christmas, right before all-star break and right before the playoffs.
“It’s kind of that way now mentally and it’s mental. All our guys, I believe in those guys and our team.”
Lowry’s struggles were a big part of Toronto’s back-to-back losses. He was held to just five points and three assists by Cavaliers guard Jose Calderon on Tuesday. That was after he had three 11-point games in a row. In that four-game span, he shot .318 on field goals.
Lowry had gone to see Villanova – his alma mater – win the NCAA championship on Monday night but insisted that the extra travel had not affected his play in Cleveland.
A one-handed slam dunk by Serge Ibaka with 5:14 left in Wednesday’s game brought the sell-out crowd of 19,963 at Air Canada Centre to its feet and made it 85-70. Ibaka and Lucas Noguiera dominated play in the final quarter, getting several dunks as Casey began to rest his starters.