DeRozan rises to inspire Raptors to sixth straight win

DeRozan went for 34 points as the Raptors beat the Celtics 115-109 in Toronto.

Everything seemed to be “feeling good” for DeRozan in the third quarter, when he had 18 points to regain the lead for the Raptors. Who does that? Not a lot of players in the National Basketball Association do. On the subject of the all-star candidacies of Lowry and DeRozan, now sitting third and sixth respectively in the voting for Eastern Conference guards, Boston coach Brad Stevens had encouraging words. He’s going to shoot his little Kobe Bryant fadeaways and he’s going to make em.

In the final frame, the Raptors led by four points when Isaiah Thomas committed a costly turnover on an inbound play out of a timeout with 41 seconds left.

“He’s really good”, Stevens said of DeRozan, who was an All-Star once before in 2014. Luis Scola had 18 points while Jonas Valanciunas had a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds.

The Toronto Raptors host the Boston Celtics in one of the National Basketball Association games on Wednesday, start time at 7:30 PM ET, at Air Canada Centre.

Maybe that’s just a predictable regression that would have happened regardless, but the Raptors had issues stopping the likes of Kelly Olynyk and Jonas Jerebko from making threes throughout the game.

“I don’t know”, he said when asked how it felt to equal his second-highest offensive output of the year on Wednesday night. He put his blood, sweat and tears into this organization, into this franchise. Johnson was given a huge cheer during pre-game introductions and a standing ovation following a first-quarter video tribute…. “I thought it was pretty awesome”.

Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan (10) tries to keep the ball from Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley (0) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Toronto on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016.

On the season, the Raptors average 100.6 points, 43.8 rebounds and 18.4 assists per game.

“(Defense) is one thing we understand that we have to clean up, get better at it and be more conscious of it coming out of the gate”, DeRozan said.

“It just shows the different type of ways we can win games….” Right now, the Celtics are already on pace to surpass last year’s win total of 40 games and earn themselves a spot in the playoffs.

The Raptors capped a 10-2 run early in the third with a three-pointer from Lowry to give them a 70-68 lead, their first of the second half.

The defence disappeared in the second quarter, as the Celtics made 14-of-20 field goal attempts, including 5-of-7 three-point attempts to erase their deficit and take a six-point lead at the halftime break.

Boston forward Jae Crowder cut the Raptors’ lead to two points late in the game, but DeRozan came right back with a 19-foot pullup jumper to restore Toronto’s lead to four points with 46.9 seconds to play.

“He played through the contact, played with physicality”, said Dwane Casey after the game. We could easily be on the other side of that.

“We’ll learn from it, definitely, as far as how we can make things harder on DeMar”, said Bradley. Anthony put up 30 points, nine assists and seven rebounds while leading his Knicks to a 118-111 overtime win against the Jazz.

After a Boston miss, Toronto point guard Kyle Lowry made two free throws with 14.8 seconds to play to make the lead six points and clinch the game. With their returning chemistry and continuity, there’s no reason for them to have reverted to struggling to win close games this year.