Andrea Bargnani pounds 31 to help Toronto Raptors drop Cleveland Cavaliers 92-77: NBA Recap
On a remarkably cold shooting night for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Andrea Bargnani pounded 31 points on an 11 of 16 shooting from the field and DeMar DeRozan followed with 25 to hand Toronto Raptors their second win, 92-77, in as
many games and also the second of the season against the Cavs.
The Cavaliers hit a road block from the floor in Toronto and finished the game with a shooting percentage of only 29.6 percent, including 7 of 23 from the long range. The Raptors on the other hand, found hot touch from Bargnani,
who also grabbed seven rebounds and was instrumental in infusing the defensive hustle throughout his 34:06 minutes stay on the court.
Raps head coach, Dwane Casey, who was the assistant coach at the Dallas Mavericks before joining the team this season, cited confidence as the key to the improvement Bargnani, an underachiever so far in his career, has shown so
far this season;
"Confidence. He's playing at an all-star level. I've been around some all-star players, Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki he's playing at a big time level. I'm totally impressed with his approach offensively
and defensively."
The Raps also got 13 points, 11 assists and 6 boards from point guard Jose Calderon. After being put under the cosh in the starting 9 minutes of the game, the Raps found their range and reeled off a 10-0 spurt, bridging the last
2:40 minutes of the first quarter and 1:28 of the second, to take a 25-18 lead. Although the Raps never lost the lead after that, it wasn’t until late in the third quarter, that they really pulled away with a 12-2 run and went into the final quarter with a
66-51 lead.
The Cavs tried to make a comeback at the start of the last quarter, jumping to 9-3 run, to bring the deficit to 60-69, but Bargnani scored 10 points in a 12-4 run to finally put the game to bed.
The Cavs were paced by Antawn Jamison with 19 points; however only two of those came in the second half while Omri Casspi had 10 points.
It was a bad night out for the Cleveland rookies – Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson. Irving who had found his zone in the last few games managed only 3 of 13 from the field to end with 12 points and Thompson, in his first homecoming,
looked completely out of sorts managing only 1 point on a 0-5 shooting and 3 rebounds.
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