David Lee thought the New York Knicks let one get away.
Sonny
Weems scored a career-high 20 points, Jose Calderon had 16 and the
Toronto Raptors beat the Knicks 102-96 on Friday night, snapping a
four-game losing streak despite playing their seventh straight without
All-Star Chris Bosh.
"As good as they are
at home, with Bosh not playing, we should have won this game — no
matter what quarter we didn't play well in," Lee said.
Jarrett
Jack and Amir Johnson each scored 14, and Hedo Turkoglu had 12 points
and nine rebounds for the Raptors, who won on a night when Bosh was
forced to go to hospital with severe stomach cramps an hour before the
tip.
"I was more concerned about Chris than the game," Jack said.
Despite
suffering flu-like symptoms, Johnson started in place of Bosh, whose
plans to halt a six-game absence caused by a sprained left ankle were
ended when he left for tests about an hour before the game. A Raptors
staffer said after the game that Bosh was still in hospital, receiving
intravenous fluids.
Weems 'relentless'
Turkoglu,
knocked out of Monday's game at Houston by a sore left ankle, left
briefly in the second to have the ankle re-taped and sat out the fourth
quarter.
"You could see he was laboring," coach Jay Triano said. "We tried to go as many minutes as we could with him."
Weems scored 10 points in the fourth and finished with nine rebounds while Johnson had eight rebounds for the Raptors.
"[Weems] played an outstanding game," Johnson said. "He was relentless, man. Sonny gave us a big lift."
Jack said Johnson's contributions were just as important.
"He did a good job of sparking us early, being on the glass, being a good interior presence for us," Jack said.
Lee
had 23 points and 18 rebounds for the Knicks while Wilson Chandler
added 18 points. Tracy McGrady and Danilo Gallinari each scored 13, and
Al Harrington and Sergio Rodriguez both had 10 for New York, which has
lost 11 of 13.
Like Lee, Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said his team could have been better, especially with the game on the line in the fourth.
"I
just didn't think we had the necessary gumption to get up on them and
guard a little man-to-man and stop it," D'Antoni said. "We couldn't do
it. They scored every time."
Bargnani returns to game despite head wound
Toronto
led 92-83 with 5:53 left but Bill Walker made a layup, Gallinari hit a
three-pointer and, after a timeout, added a jumper from the top to make
it 92-90. Jack stopped the run with a reverse layup and Calderon hit a
jumper, giving the Raptors a six-point lead, 96-90, with 3:16 remaining.
"They
made some shots," Lee said. "The one that Calderon pulled up on, I
touched the ball and touched his hand on the shot, and it went in."
Toronto finished with a season-high 62 points in the paint against the undersized Knicks.
"I
thought we did a great job offensively, but, defensively, when you give
up that many points in the paint, it's going to be tough to really stop
a team," McGrady said.
Lee (12) and
Harrington (seven) combined for 19 of New York's 24 points in the
first, but Johnson scored eight and Antoine Wright had seven for the
Raptors, who led 31-24 after one.
The
Knicks tied it with a 9-2 run to begin the second, and just over a
minute later, Turkoglu went to the locker room to get his sore left
ankle re-taped. Toronto pushed its lead back to seven before the Knicks
rallied again, but Turkoglu returned and made two free throws with
three seconds left, giving the Raptors a 53-52 lead at the half.
Bargnani
had to leave in the third after he was knocked backward into Johnson
and suffered a cut on the back of his head. He needed three skin
staples to close the gash but returned before the end of the quarter
and helped Toronto take a 78-77 edge into the fourth.