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three assists against the Raptors.
November 9, 2008
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The Toronto Raptors overcame their recent struggles by returning to what got them off to a strong start this season - finding the open man.
Chris Bosh capitalized by scoring 30 points with a season-high 15 rebounds for the Raptors in an 89-79 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Sunday that snapped a two-game losing streak.
"My teammates do a great job of finding the open guy,'' said Bosh, who scored 14 points in the fourth quarter when Toronto led by as many as 15. "That's what we're taught to do, and that's where we make our bread and butter. If we see a guy open, we have to get it to him.''
Andrea Bargnani scored 18 points for the Raptors, including a key 3-pointer with less than six minutes to go that put Toronto ahead to stay.
Jose Calderon added 13 points and Jamario Moon had 10 for the Raptors, who opened the season with three straight wins.
"We just had to get back to believing in ourselves,'' Bosh said. "We kind of stopped talking about being a good team. ... We stopped demanding perfection from ourselves.''
Bobcats rookie D.J. Augustin scored 11 of his 14 points in the second quarter in helping Charlotte take a 45-40 lead at the break. Jason Richardson and Raymond Felton had 12 points each, and Jared Dudley 10.
Gerald Wallace, the Bobcats' No. 2 scorer at 17.2 points per game, was held to six points on 2-of-11 shooting.
"If they do a good job on (Richardson) and Wallace, it's pretty tough for us,'' Charlotte head coach Larry Brown said.
Charlotte upped its lead to 58-47 on Richardson's layup with 7:11 remaining in the third quarter. But the Raptors closed the quarter with a 16-9 run to pull within 67-63.
"We had control of it, and we let them get away,'' Wallace said. "Late in that third quarter, they kind of took over the game. ... We just had trouble guarding them and they were able to get too many easy baskets.''
The two sides then swapped the lead six times in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, with Richardson giving Charlotte its last lead at 74-72 on a 3-pointer with 7:58 left.
Bosh tied the game 30 seconds later with a layup, and Bargnani's 3-pointer from the top of the key with 5:53 left put Toronto ahead.
Bargnani also capped a 17-point run with another 3-pointer with 1:42 remaining that gave the Raptors an 89-74 margin, their biggest lead of the game.
"Andrea gave us a big lift,'' Toronto head coach Sam Mitchell said. "(And) our guys made the game easy for Chris. We got him some easy baskets for a change without him having to work so hard.''
With the Bobcats struggling to find their range - they hit just 3 of their first 15 shots - Toronto appeared to take command midway through the first quarter, going on a 14-6 run to pull ahead 20-13 with 30 seconds left.
Charlotte, however, got right back into it with six unanswered points over the final 7 seconds to cut the Raptors' lead to 20-19, beginning with Emeka Okafor's layup.
Matt Carroll hit a free throw after Mitchell was called for a technical foul with 1.5 seconds left, and Felton hit three more free throws after he was fouled by Anthony Parker on a desperation 3-pointer from midcourt.
Augustin, the ninth overall pick in the June draft, then put the Bobcats ahead with his offensive surge in the second quarter.
He nailed a 3-pointer with 10:34 left to tie the game at 22-22, made another a minute later to put Charlotte up 27-24, and scored the Bobcats' final five points of the quarter.
"We had a horrible first quarter, but we managed to stay attached in the second quarter,'' Brown said. "We controlled the tempo and got good shots early in the third quarter. Then it seemed like we didn't stop them, and that was the difference.''
Notes: Toronto was 4-for-17 on 3-pointers Sunday, extending its NBA-record streak of consecutive games with at least on 3 to 784 games. Calderon kept the Raptors' streak intact with his 3 from the corner with 6:47 left in the third quarter. ... Bosh became the second player in Toronto history to pass the 7,000-point mark in career scoring. He has 7,011 points, second behind Vince Carter, who scored 9,420 points between 1998-2004. ... Charlotte kept Sean May on the inactive list for a fifth straight game for what Brown had previously said were "conditioning issues.'' May only played in 58 games his first two seasons because of injuries, and missed the entire 2007-08 season after having surgery on his right knee.
Bobcats Head Coach Larry Brown
(On the team’s play today)
"We never got to the free throw line in the second half, I think we had 15 at halftime. We shot four in the second half, and I think four of them came in the last 40 seconds. If they do a good job on J-Rich (Jason Richardson) and Gerald Wallace it’s pretty tough for us. They did a real good job defending both of those guys, and with Emeka Okafor being under the weather, we didn’t throw it in the post, and every time we threw it in the post we didn’t get anything, so we started shooting jump shots and they executed great. We’ve got to give them credit. Chris Bosh was phenomenal; they just found open people just by spacing us out."
(On his biggest concern with the team)
"I understand what our team is about. We handled the pick-and-roll plays great against New Orleans because we were active and were the aggressor. If you were looking out there today and scouting us, you couldn’t say whether we weaked (zone) it, doubled-teamed or weather we went under it. I don’t think there was any rhyme or reason of how we played it and they took advantage of that. They did a great job in that respect."
(On the differences between the first and second halves)
"I thought we had a horrible first quarter, we were only down one, our first couple of possessions were kind of empty, but we managed to stay attached in the second quarter. We controlled the tempo and got good shots, early in the third quarter. Then it seemed like we didn’t stop them, that was the difference. We were scoring, but they were scoring just as easily, and they all of sudden got inside baskets, and we trying to look for jump shots and that’s not a good thing to have in this league."
Bobcats guard Raymond Felton
(On what went wrong in the fourth quarter)
"I think we should have driven the ball to the basket a little bit more instead of settling for jump shots. And they started hitting shots and making plays. It was unfortunate that at the end of the game, they were hitting and we weren’t."
(On what went right in the first half)
"We were playing great defense, we were moving the ball, we were getting inside the lane, kicking out and getting lay-ups. I think we got out of that and (stopped) being aggressive."
(On the Bobcats’ offense when he and D.J. Augustin play together)
"You’ve got two guys that can handle the ball, get inside the lane, pass, get guys the ball and also can score at the same time. That causes problems for defenses."
Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace
(On how the game changed in the second half)
"(This game got away from us) late in the third quarter. They (the Raptors) started to find the offensive play that was working for them – (Andrea) Bargnani from the top of the key and Chris Bosh and (Jose) Calderon with the pick-and-roll – and we had trouble guarding them."
(On Chris Bosh)
"He’s pretty much good, but I think we had control of him. We let him get from us away late in the first half and then late in the third quarter he took over the game. He’s an All-Star, so he’s going to make shots, but fortunately (in the first half) we were making him take tough shots. On the penetration, we were trying to crowd him. If he was going to beat us like that, we were going to have to deal with it. But late in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter, we let him get easy buckets."
(On what changed for the Bobcats on offense in the fourth quarter)
"There was too much standing around. When all you’re doing is just swinging the ball around the perimeter, all the defense has to do is (stay in front of you). They don’t really have to work."
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