Jerome Williams scored four of his season-high 18 points in the final 28 seconds and Antonio Davis made a huge block down the stretch as the Toronto Raptors held on for a 109-103 victory over the Rockets, who were without their best player.
Francis, who missed 17 games earlier this season with a foot injury, did not travel with the team to Canada in order to undergo further testing related to migraine headaches. Houston was 1-16 without its star guard and did not fare well without him Wednesday until Moochie Norris took over.
The Raptors had an 86-68 cushion less than two minutes into the fourth quarter before Norris dominated a 19-4 by the Rockets. He scored 15 of his season-high 28 points during the burst, highlighted by a pair of three-point plays.
 Vince Carter led all scorers, and got significant help from the rest of his team down the stretch. Ron Turenne /NBAE/Getty Images |
"The block by Antonio at the end was one of the biggest plays of the game," Raptors guard Vince Carter said. "We knew that Houston could put up points in a hurry. So when they went on their run, it's good that we were up by a lot."
After a pair of free throws by Williams, Griffin sank a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 104-102 with 21 seconds to play.
But Alvin Williams, who scored 21 points, made two free throws, Carter added 1-of-2 with 12 seconds left and Williams had a dunk at the buzzer as Toronto won for the fourth time in five games.
"We didn't give up when they started hitting threes," Davis said. "We remained calm and just tried to figure it out on the fly. That will get us to the next level. When a team shoots like that, it's tough to keep any lead."
The Rockets made 12-of-19 shots in the fourth quarter but made just one basket in the final 1:52.
Carter finished with 29 points and Davis added 16 for Toronto, which shot a season-high 56 percent (44-of-79) and limited itself to seven turnovers, including just four in the first three quarters.
Hakeem Olajuwon, who led the Rockets to two NBA championships in 17 seasons, had six points and five assists in his first game against his former team.
"I was happy to see the guys. It felt strange the whole game," he said. "I think they should be proud of how they played tonight. They had an opportunity to win on the road, but I'm happy we won."
"It was very eerie and strange," Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. "I never thought it would happen, never."
Cuttino Mobley scored 22 points and Kenny Thomas collected 20 and eight rebounds for the Rockets, who lost forward Walt Williams to a twisted right ankle early in the third quarter.
"With one of our key players out, our guys stepped up," Mobley said. "Moochie had a great game and Kenny played well. What we need is to work with this nucleus and continue to play hard and build for next year."
Toronto took the lead for good with a 19-4 run in the second quarter that turned a tie into a 49-34 advantage. Williams had eight points, two rebounds and a block during the burst.
"Without Steve Francis, we knew we had to jump on them early," he said. "We had good ball movement which created matchup problems. Myself, Keon (Clark) and Antonio really held our own tonight and that opened up things for Vince and Alvin to give us a well-balanced attack."