The Raptors clip the Hawks' wings in the first of a tradition home and home series

In the first night of a traditional home and home series the Raptors went wire to wire with the lead and when the Hawks made a run like in the first quarter with 4 minutes left they were up 21-11 and the Raptors were only leading by 2 @ 25-23 and then the Raptors were leading @ half by 14 points (53-39). In the third quarter the Hawks cut the lead to 9 after three quarters (73-64) and then the Raptors took control of the game in the fourth and got it up to 24 points before garbage time and still won 102-86. The Raptors were lead by DeMar DeRozan with 23 points and went to the line 11 times and had 4 b 4 boards (all boards in the first half) and Alan Anderson had 14 points in the first half and ended up with 16 points. Kleiza and Gray lead the team in boards with 7 each as the Raps were plus 4 on the glass while James Johnson did not take a shot in the first three quarters and then went 6 of 8 in the final quarter and had 15 points in the quarter. The Raptors shot the lights out with 55% (41 of 74) shooting after shooting 58% in the first half and the Hawks shot 40% in the game (29 of 72) but were shooting 34% at the half. The Hawks had one shining light who was Josh Smith was 11 of 20 and had 26 of the Hawks points and the rest of the team went 18 of 52 which under 35% including Joe Johnson who was 2 of 12 and 6 points after averaging over 20 in his career against the Raptors. The Raptors broke another long losing streak as they won their first game in 7 against the Hawks and have not won in Atlanta in years including the famous clock issue that won a game for the Hawks and in exchange they are losing more lottery balls. I feel changing the culture is better than getting another top pick and be back at the beginning like they were with VC and CB4 and they could of kept Traino and gotten a lot of lottery balls but then they would have Mike D'Antino instead of Dwayne Casey as the Raps were not the only team looking at him. Raptors and Hawks again tomorrow Tom Mehegan