Toronto Raptors DeMar DeRozan drives past Portland Trail Blazers' Pat Connaughton as Raptors' Jakob Poeltl looks on during a game on Feb. 2, 2018.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
The evolution of DeMar DeRozan's game was on full display Friday night, as he matched a career-best six three-pointers on his way to a 35-point night to held the Toronto Raptors thump the Portland Trail Blazers 130-105.
As DeRozan shot 60 per cent from beyond the arc Friday, he continued to make distant the memories of a player who before this season did most of his damage from mid-range. DeRozan made 64 threes back in 2013-14 – his highest season total to this point. Not yet at the halfway mark of this season, the Raptors' all-star has already knocked down 59.
Jonas Valanciunas contributed 18 points and eight rebounds for Toronto. Fred VanVleet added 16 points and five boards in his return to the team after staying home from Thursday's trip to Washington to be with his fiancé and just-born daughter. Kyle Lowry put up 15 points, four rebounds and five assists.
As a team, the Raptors made a season-high 19 three-pointers – including a trio from VanVleet.
"Make shots, everything's easy. You make shots, it makes up for a multitude of sins," said Toronto Coach Dwane Casey. "DeMar came out of his three-point bag and was making shots, that's the difference in the game, vault up and shoot shots with conviction, play with force, play with pace and we stayed with our triggers and played through our continuity stuff and found the right person."
It was a significant win for the Raptors, who seemed to be reeling a little with two losses in the past week. They were on the tail-end of a back-to-back, having flown home from Washington late Thursday night after a frustrating 122-119 loss to a Wizards squad sans John Wall.
"It's big. If you want to be a good team in this league, you can't lose two in a row," said VanVleet.
The Raptors had clearly missed VanVleet in the second unit Thursday and Toronto coach Dwane Casey didn't mind pointing that out Friday. They had missed the reserve point guard's defensive tone-setting, his ball movement, shooting ability, and the way he organizes the group. But he was back Friday night in Toronto.
The Blazers came to town hot, 29-22 and clinging to the sixth playoff seed in the West after winning fourth straight and seven of their past eight. Portland had an NBA-best 11-5 record in the month of January.
DeRozan and Lowry were up against one of the NBA's elite backcourts in C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard – and McCollum was fresh off a career-best 50-point night on Wednesday.
"Our antennas have to be up with him," Casey warned before the game.
The Raps built an enormous first-quarter lead behind 16 points from DeRozan, who was January's Eastern Conference player of the month. But Valanciunas stole the show in the first. Toronto's big man erupted for 11 points by scoring in a variety of ways, from a turnaround hook shot to a mid-range jumper and a three-pointer – while also nabbing five rebounds.
McCollum missed his first four shots – largely with OG Anunoby chasing him around – and the Raps took a whopping 37-18 lead into the second.
That hefty lead would come in handy for Toronto in the second quarter, which was far more even-scoring. Both McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic starting hitting buckets for Portland. DeRozan had tallied 26 points by halftime, and the Raptors were a huge 11-of-19 from beyond the arc (with C.J. Miles sidelined with knee soreness, no less).
The Raps took a 74-52 lead into the locker room. It was Toronto's second-highest scoring half of the season, just shy of the 76 it had in the second half in Houston.
The threes kept falling for DeRozan in his 13-point third quarter, as Portland appeared to take one last gasp at the game by leaving stars like McCollum and Lillard in for extra minutes. McCollum finished with 21 points while Lillard added 32 and Nurkic 20.
After the first contest of a four-game home-stand, the Raptors improved to 35-16 and an NBA-leading 20-4 at home. They sit second place in the Eastern Conference behind the Boston Celtics.
Next up for the Raptors is a Sunday afternoon visit from the Memphis Grizzlies – and matinee games have often troubled the Raps. Casey was sure to get his starters out early Friday and finish the game with bench players to ease the recuperation a little before Sunday.
"I'm concerned about the early start on Sunday," said Casey. "We've got an early game on Sunday, gives them some time to bounce back from the back-to-back, then we've got Boston coming in here Tuesday. We've got a string of games here where as much rest as we can get is important."
Rachel Brady