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Raptors cool off red-hot Pacers in Lowry’s return
LOS ANGELES, Jan 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Norman Powell scored 23 points and
Kyle Lowry returned from injury to tally 12 as the Toronto Raptors snapped
the Indiana Pacer’s six-game NBA in streak with a 121-105 victory on Sunday.
Pascal Siakam finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Serge Ibaka
scored 18 as the Raptors won despite missing Kawhi Leonard who sat out to
rest.
The four-time all-star Lowry also dished out eight assists after missing
the last 10 of 11 games due to back and thigh problems. He played 32 minutes
and shot four-of-10, going two-for-six from beyond the arc in front of a
crowd of 19,800 at Scotiabank Arena.
Danny Green scored 15 points and equalled his season high with five three
pointers as Toronto returned from a victory in Milwaukee on Saturday to win
their fifth consecutive contest at home.
The Raptors nailed 17 of 33 from three-point range, one shy of their season
best.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 21 points, Domantas Sabonis had 16 points and 11
rebounds, and Victor Oladipo scored 16 points for Indiana, who have lost 14
of their last 16 against Toronto. The Pacers last win in Toronto was in 2013.
“This is a tough place to play,” said Pacers coach Nate McMillan. “We
haven’t had success here in a number of years. We never really established
that we could stop them.”
Thaddeus Young scored 14 points and Darren Collison had 11 in the loss.
Toronto made six of nine three pointers to take a 37-35 lead at the end of
the first quarter.
Powell scored 10 points in the second and Toronto led 70-63 at halftime.
Ibaka delivered 10 in the third as the Raptors took a 96-84 lead into the
fourth.
Elswehere, Bradley Beal scored 25 points as the Washington Wizards thumped
the Oklahoma City Thunder 116-98 despite a triple-double from Russell
Westbrook.
Otto Porter had 20 points, six rebounds and five assists, Jeff Green scored
16 points and Tomas Satoransky added 15 for the Wizards in the win.
“It has to be up there, there’s no question,” said Wizards coach Scott
Brooks. “We battled. We played against one of the best teams in basketball.
They’ve got a lot of talent. They’ve got three all-stars on the floor and I
think we battled them and did a lot of things well.”
Westbrook finished with 22 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists for his 12th
triple-double of the season and the 116th of his career.
Paul George scored 20 points and Jerami Grant added 17 for the Thunder, who
had their modest three-game winning streak halted.
The Wizards went on a 15-2 run in the third to take a 80-69 point lead late
in the quarter.
Sam Dekker’s reverse dunk put the Wizards up 96-81 with about 10 minutes
left and later Green stretched the lead to 20 points with another three
pointer.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1050 hrs