National Basketball Association roundup: Kyle Lowry’s career-high 43 points leads Raptors past Cavaliers

Kyle Lowry had a big smile after capping off a career night by hitting the clinching basket in the closing seconds.

Lowry’s jumper with 3.8 seconds left over an outstretched Matthew Dellavedova gave the Raptors a 99-97 victory over the Cavs Friday night, shaving the Cavs’ lead for the top seed to 2 games and more importantly giving the Raptors the tiebreaker.

DeRozan was battling flu-like symptoms and missed his first 10 shots. “We held a good team to under 100 points and got the win”. I think we grew tonight, but we’ve got the team to get better.

Toronto was able to fight of the Cavaliers even though their other All Star, Demar DeRozan had one of his worst shooting games since his rookie year. “If we come back and stub our toe on Sunday (against the Pistons) what does it mean?” Under Blatt this season, the Cavs averaged 101.0 points and were giving up 95.7 points per game.

“Anybody who says it wasn’t is lying to you”, he said when asked if it was a big game, particularly with the playoff tiebreaker on the line.

“They’re a good team, one of the best teams in the league”, Case said of the Cavs. For James, it was the kind of performance the team has to learn from.

LeBron James played just 4:34 in the second quarter and the Raptors took advantage. Ricky Rubio also had a great first half, dropping 10 of his 12 dimes for the game, and he finished with 12 points as well.

Chicago, which had won its previous three, finally saw injuries catch up with them, missing Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose and Nikola Mirotic.

IN (31-27) had taken a 95-94 lead on a Monta Ellis runner with 16.2 seconds remaining, and the Hornets (30-27) called a timeout with 10.1 seconds to play.

LeBron James top-scored for the Cavs with 25 points and eight rebounds. The point guard finished the evening with a career-high 43 points. Charlotte won for the second time this month at IN after dropping 12 straight on the Pacers’ home court.

PHILADELPHIA – John Wall had 23 points and 11 assists to lead Washington past Philadelphia.

Jeff Green scored 22 points and Jamal Crawford had 21 for Los Angeles. James leads in three major statistical categories: points (24.7), assists (6.6) and steals (1.4) per game.

Centre Al Horford scored 18 points and forward Kent Bazemore tallied 17 points. David Lee, playing his second game with Dallas, had 14 points and 14 rebounds in 26 minutes.

Chirs Paul’s 40 points and a 34-16 third quarter broke the resistance of the Sacramento Kings and set up a 117-107 win for the LA Clippers. However, the team lost much of its momentum and gave up a double digit lead late. Forward/center Tristan Thompson had six points and 10 rebounds for Cleveland. Rudy Gay scored 23. He also recorded 11 rebounds and six assists for his 19th double-double this season. The best player on the floor all night, Lowry exploded for a career-high 43 points on 15-for-20 field goals.

Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith missed a three-point attempt with 26.9 seconds left and the Raptors had the ball.

D’Angelo Russell had 22 points but Kobe Bryant sat out with a sore right shoulder as the West-worst Lakers (11-49) lost their eighth in a row and 22nd in the last 25.