DeRozan sparks record burst
All-star racks up 37, and 44-point first quarter breaks franchise mark
Just shy of eight minutes into the first quarter of Tuesday night’s Raptors win over the Washington Wizards, Kyle Lowry’s pass found DeMar DeRozan on the right wing, and the four-time all-star seized another opportunity to showcase a skill he spent last off-season developing.
He drilled a catch-and-shoot jumper from 21feet out, putting the Raptors ahead 28-13.
Inside the Air Canada Centre, fans celebrated the now-familiar dance hall air horn sounded. Wizards coach Scott Brooks called a timeout, hoping to deaden the home team’s momentum, but the Raptors kept coming. And so did DeRozan. Six Raptors finished Tuesday’s 130-119 win with double digits in points and DeRozan tallied 37 of them, helping propel his team to the first 2-0 playoff series lead in franchise history.
“I didn’t go out there planning to score 37 points,” DeRozan told reporters afterward. “I went out there planning to be aggressive, and with my aggressiveness came 37 points.”
The Raptors ran up 44 points in Tuesday’s first quarter, the most ever scored in a single quarter of a playoff game in franchise history, and enough to propel them to a comfortable win despite being outscored in the second half. Six Raptors scored in double digits, with centre Jonas Valanciunas scoring 19. Early offence included a transition three from Lowry, who finished with 13 points and 12 assists, and another trey from power forward Serge Ibaka, who totaled 10. It featured a steal and dunk from secondunit guard Delon Wright.
And it featured plenty of DeRozan, who converted a fourpoint play in the first quarter and finished the first half with 20 points.
“He’s a great player,” Brooks said. “Great player making plays. He’s an all-star for a reason.”
During an earlier timeout, the ACC’s scoreboard monitor displayed a DeRozan highlight reel while the words “I am Toronto” and “Deebo” flashed on a border around the screen.
DeRozan’s “Deebo” nickname is borrowed from the musclebound bully character from the 1995 cult classic comedy Friday, but Tuesday he used more brains than brute force
DeRozan converted 14 of his 23 field goal attempts, and made three of his six three- point shots.
Heading into Tuesday night’s game the Raptors knew another win depended largely on slowing John Wall, the all-star guard who missed all four regular-season meetings between the two teams.
Wall found his rhythm as the game progressed, and even helped the Wizards trim a Raptors lead that seemed insurmountable at halftime. By the start of the fourth quarter, Wall had put up 21 points and seven assists, and the Raptors led by just 10.
“He (was) just going where he wanted to go with the ball,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.