DeMar DeRozan scored a career-high 42 points on Monday night, coupled with tying his career-high of 11 rebounds for a monster double-double that powered his Toronto Raptors to a 99-96 victory over the red-hot Houston Rockets. The Toronto win was their eighth straight victory at home against Houston.
The Raptors definitely won behind DeRozan's huge game, in which he made 14 of 27 shots from the field and 12 of 17 from the charity stripe. DeMar scored the majority of his points in the second half, scoring 13 in the third and 11 in the fourth. His go-ahead turnaround bank shot with 1:27 remaining was all he needed, but the victory was sealed with his jumper over James Harden with 18 seconds to go.
Jonas Valunciunas recorded 15 points, nine rebounds, and five blocks on the night, and Louis Williams added 13 points and five assists off the bench. The Raptors controlled the battle under the glass, in large part to the 16 boards grabbed by Amir Johnson. Toronto shot at a 44.9 field goal percentage, and made 21 out of their 27 free throws attempted.
James Harden had a big game for the Rockets on the losing side, scoring 31 points, grabbing five rebounds, and dropping five dimes in his team's loss. Dwight Howard was resting for the game due to limited minutes for a right knee injury.
"Dwight is going to have limited minutes for a while." - Kevin McHale
Trevor Ariza added 15 points, eight rebounds, and five assists for the Rockets. Corey Brewer scored 13 and five rebounds as a reserve for Houston.
The late-game intensity was taken to a whole new level in this contest, when Trevor Ariza hit a three that put the Rockets up, 96-95, with 1:44 left in regulation. DeRozan answered with the two aforementioned shots he drained with 1:27 and 0:18 remaining to win it for his team in the clutch. Ariza missed two game-tying threes in the closing moments in a last-resort effort from the Rockets. Toronto won the fourth quarter 25-20 to come out on top.
This was the first win for Toronto against a team with a winning record since their victory over the Atlanta Hawks on February 20th. This win snapped a 10-game losing streak against those teams.
Houston is comfortably in the West's number three seed, sitting at 50-24 following Monday's result. They are only a half game back of Memphis for the second seed.
The Raptors are fourth in the Eastern Conference at 44-30 after the win, and are one game behind the Chicago Bulls for the third seed in the inferior conference.