DeRozan shoots Raptors into uncharted territory
TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan’s big game on Tuesday night sent the Toronto Raptors to a place they’ve never been before — a 2-0 lead in a playoff series.
DeRozan matched his career playoff high with 37 points while Jonas Valanciunas had 19 points and 14 rebounds as the Raptors beat the Washington Wizards 130119.
“I didn’t go out there planning to score 37 points, I went out there to be aggressive,” DeRozan said.
Kyle Lowry had 13 points and a career playoff high 12 assists as Toronto set team playoff records for points in a quarter, a half and a game.
CJ Miles scored 18, Delon Wright had 11 and Serge Ibaka 10 for the Raptors, who snapped an NBA-worst 10-game losing streak in playoff openers with a 114-106 win on Saturday.
DeRozan, whose 37th point came on a friendly roll on a fourth-quarter free throw, equaled his total from Game 3 of the second round against Cleveland last year.
It was his 12th career 30-point game in the postseason. The Raptors are 9-3 in those games.
“I thought DeMar was super on the offensive end,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “We needed every point. He did an excellent job of reading what the defense was doing to him and making them pay.”
Lowry called DeRozan “an MVP-type caliber player”.
DeRozan missed his first two shots but connected on 14 of his final 21 attempts, including three of six from long range. He also converted a four-point play.
“When he’s making 3s, he’s very tough to guard,” Washington’s John Wall said of DeRozan.
Toronto, which made a team playoff record 16 3-pointers on Saturday, connected on 13 of 35 from long range in Game 2, making only two in the second half.
Wall scored 29 points, Mike Scott had a career playoff-high 20 and Ty Lawson 14 for the Wizards, who host Game 3 on Friday night.
“We’re the team that’s in the hole, we’re the team that’s desperate, but we have a lot of confidence,” Wall said. “We’re not down on ourselves at all.”
Wizards guard Bradley Beal missed eight of 11 shots and finished with nine points. Beal had more fouls in the first half (three) than baskets (two).
“We need him,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “We’re going to have trouble beating this team if he doesn’t play better.”
Trailing 100-90 to begin the fourth quarter, the Wizards cut it to 108-103 with 7:52 left on back-to-back 3-pointers by Scott and Lawson, and a pair of free throws from Wall.
Miles stopped the run with a long 3, Toronto’s first of the second half, and the Raptors put it away with a 17-4 spurt over the next four minutes.
The sellout crowd roared when DeRozan forced a turnover and saved the ball from going out of bounds, then passed to Lowry who fed Wright for an alley-oop dunk with 3:38 left, putting Toronto up 125-107.
Toronto set a team playoff record with 44 points in the first quarter, including 13 from DeRozan, and led 44-27 after one. All five starters made at least one 3-pointer as the Raptors shot 7 for 13 from long range.
“Seven 3s in a quarter, that got the momentum going,” said Brooks, who called two timeouts to try and slow Toronto, to little effect.