By Kyle Soppe
The Toronto Raptors dominated the Houston Rockets at the Air Canada Centre 116-98. There was only a single lead change as the home team led from start to finish.
The Raptors won the second and fourth quarter by a combined 24 points, and were outscored in the other two quarters by six.
The Raptors offense, who has been missing their top producer in Andrea Bargani, was surprisingly productive for a team that scores 100+ in a mere 15.4% of its games. The made twice as many threes as Houston despite only shooting one more. They made the second most field goals in the NBA last night (26 teams played) but took less shots than 84.6% of the teams. Six Raptors recorded double digit point totals, and every one of them shot at least 50% from the field (shot a combined 62.3%).
Pass first point guard Jose Calderon led the onslaught with 12 dimes, as Toronto out assisted the visitors by 16. Toronto’s 31 assists were more than the Rockets could have possibly had, as they only had 29 made field goals.
Linas Kleiza drilled three three pointers last night, a magic number for 6’8″ shooter. When he connects on at least three triples, the Raptors are 5-1, and a pathetic 8-25 when he doesn’t.
Amir Johnson has shot 70% or better in seven of his last 10 games (minimum of five shot attempts). In his last 10 games, he is averaging 2.3 blocks per game.
DeMar DeRozan, by all accounts the Raptors most explosive and promising player, has eclipsed his season average in points (16.2) in eight of the teams last nine games. In the guards last 198 minutes of game action, he has recorded a mere three turnovers.
I mentioned the Rockets lack of field goals earlier, and it cannot be overstated. They were the only team in the NBA to make more free throws (37) than field goals (29). That calculates to 37.8% of their points coming from the free throw line. Sure, they didn’t make many field goals, but that is an insanely high free throw total. For reference, in the highest scoring game last night (the Spurs and Knicks combined for 223 points) the teams combined for 32 made free throws. Even further, 70% of active Rockets made at least three freebies, as compared to the 18.2% of Raptors who did so.
Kevin Martin, who most feel is an elite scorer, struggled shooting the ball again, and has now made 26/79 shots from the field since the All Star break.
Chandler Parsons has taken advantage of big minutes of late, as the rookie from Florida has made 21/31 shots over his last four games. His three steals and six made free throws last night were both career high totals.
Only two games tonight, who you got? Magic/Bulls or Mavs/Suns?
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