Post Up: Long Time Coming

by Peter Walsh / @goinginsquad

Just ‘Cause:

Never saw this before, salute to God Shammgod:

 

Raptors 97 (16-27), Magic 95 (14-28)

The Raptors led for much of the game but the Magic crawled back and made it competitive in the fourth quarter. Compton native and face of the franchise, DeMar DeRozan, wouldn’t let his team lose. DeRozan scored 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and made sure that the Raps wouldn’t go into overtime for the fourth time in five games. With the game tied at 95 after E’Twaun Moore’s offensive rebound and put back, the Raptors drew up a play for DeRozan with five seconds remaining. On the inbounds, Jose Calderon caught the ball and found DeRozan cutting across the top of the key. The shooting guard inexplicably faded towards the corner where he was doubled by Glen Davis and Arron Afflalo. With the clock about to expire, DeMar threw up a prayer that found the bottom of the net and Toronto walked off the floor victorious. The Raptors swept the season series against Orlando. Nikola Vucevic led Orlando with 19 points and 14 rebounds. For more on DeRozan, check the homie Abe Schwadron’s piece from SLAM 165 here.

Knicks 89 (26-14), Celtics 86 (20-22)

It wasn’t pretty but the Knicks held on to defeat the Celtics in Boston for the first time since November 2006. Carmelo Anthony dropped a game-high 28 points and grabbed 9 boards to offset Rajon Rondo’s 23-point, 10-rebound, 11-assist performance. The loss was Boston’s fifth straight and dropped the C’s to two games under .500. Neither team shot the ball well and there was no real flow throughout which made it a tough one to watch. With three minutes to go, Rondo hit two free throws to make it an 86-84 game in favor of New York. J.R. Smith responded by hitting his only three of the night to make it a five-point game. Rondo came back and hit a short jumper with 40 seconds to go to make it 89-86. The Knicks didn’t score again but were fortunate enough to have Boston turn the ball over twice in it’s last three possessions to ensure a tough road victory. STAT finished with 15, 9 boards and 2 blocks and Iman Shumpert got the start and ended up with 10 points and 5 rebounds. The Truth scored 23 for Boston.

Suns 93 (15-28), Clippers 88 (32-12)

Think the Clippers miss Chris Paul?