The Raptors took everything that the TimberWolves throw at them and came out on top 97-87 as in the first quarter the Wolves shoot well from distance 5 of 8 and the Raptors took a two point lead 27-25 into the second quarter where the Wolves lived at the line as they went 16 of 20 from the line and with a 16-2 run to end the half the Raptors lead 55-49. In the third quarter it was a game of runs as after the Raptors built the lead to 8 @ 59-51 the Wolves went on a 8-2 run to cut it to 61-59 and the Raptors fought back with a 12-2 run to open a 73-61 lead but the Wolves the last 8 points of the third quarter and the first 4 of the fourth quarter as the Raptors went 0 for 8 and it was tied. So the fourth quarter was about defense as defenses were strong and offenses were weak and at the 7:58 of the quarter the Wolves went up 80-77 and would not score another point til the 1:42 mark of the fourth quarter but the Raptors were no different after tying the game up at 80 with 6:35 left in the game they too did not score until 3:14 left in the game which is 201 seconds of basketball time where a single point was not scored.
The game was turned on its ear when Amir Johnson @ 3:39 of the final quarter held Kevin Love in check and he had to throw up a ball from like 20 foot jump shot and Amir got the rebound and after Bargnani missed a jumper and Amir jammed home the rebound and then went down the floor and blocked a Tolliver layup shot and Bargnani got the board and Calderon went down and hit a jumper which lead to a 11-2 run to close out the game.
Amir Johnson did offensively with 19 points and defensively with 11 boards and more importantly held love to 14 boards which is one less than his season average and to 3 of 16 from the floor and he had to work hard for his points too as he went 5 of 10 from the line and ended up with 13 points in the game which is almost half of his 25.4 p/g average in the Wolves first 8 games. Andrea had 31 points and 9 boards and Jose had 14 points and 6 assists in the game while DeRozan went 3 for 11 and 3 for 3 from the line for 9 points but did help in other ways with 6 boards and 3 assists. Barbosa had 13 points with 2 of 7 from the floor and 9 of 9 from the line which is huge for a guy that shoots just over 60% from the line but the reality is he is much better with Calderon control the rock as Barbosa can not do extremely stupid things with the rock when Calderon is around. The Wolves were lead by Jose Barea who had 16 of the 50 Wolves bench points which was more than double the Raptors 22 points of the bench and with Andrea playing 45 minutes and Jose playing 40 minutes @ the start of three games in three nights the Raptors will need more from their bench along with more production out of DeRozan and Butler of are the starting two and three for the Raps and even through DeRozan played 38 minutes he has been sat for long stretches in the past few games and he needs to bring a lot more.
In DC tomorrow night to face the Wall and hopefully Jamaal Magloire gets a hammer and breaks the Wall down as he did not play tonight I guess coaches decision
Tom Mehegan
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