TORONTO: The injury-depleted Toronto Raptors won consecutive games for the first time in eight months with a 103-96 victory over the Houston Rockets yesterday.
Alan Anderson scored a team-high 24 points while DeMar DeRozan added 19 to lead a spirited Toronto effort that handed the Rockets a seventh straight road loss.
“We’ve been working so hard, we’ve been practicing so hard and we were staying together and trying to do a lot of things,” Raptors’ guard Jose Calderon, who had 18 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds for a triple-double, told reporters.
“I know it’s been a tough time and we couldn’t turn that into a win (earlier) but it feels great,” he said.
Playing without injured Andrea Bargnani and Kyle Lowry, two of the Raptors’ top three scorers, Toronto built an early 12-point lead and held off a late Houston charge for its first win streak since April of the 2011-12 season.
Houston pulled to within two points twice during the final minute but Anderson helped put the game out of reach with a reverse layup with 11 seconds left in regulation.
For Toronto (6-19), the win avenged last month’s 117-101 road loss at Houston (11-12), which came during a dismal run that saw the Raptors loss 12 of 13 games. REUTERS
