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Game Rap: Raptors 110 Clippers 98

Jay Satur - Raptors.com

It Was Over When....

In what has to be considered one of the team's signature wins to date this season, the Raptors found themselves down by eight to the Clippers on the road in the second quarter before adjusting defensively and clawing even by halftime.

Toronto proceeded to find its offence in the third quarter, but didn't really create any separation from the Clippers until the start of the fourth. The Raptors outscored the Clippers 23-8 over the first seven minutes of the final frame to push their lead to 17 points -- a run that featured eight straight points from Greivis Vasquez and was punctuated by back-to-back triples from Lou Williams.

"Lou [Williams] made two big hoops," said Dwane Casey post-game. "One was out of a timeout. We drew a play up for him, he executed it, and it was a big momentum play because it stemmed the tide a little bit. Greivis [Vasquez] came in and gave us some big minutes."

The Game Changer

Just another afternoon of All-Star level play for Kyle Lowry away from Air Canada Centre on Saturday. The point guard came into this one with better numbers on the road than at home and continued that trend on Saturday as he finished right in line with those averages in a 25-point, seven-assist, three-steal performance.

Whether it was taking over as a scorer with seven points in a span of 51 seconds late in the third, or setting up three back-breaking buckets during that pivotal run in the fourth, Lowry had his fingerprints all over the impressive road win.

Don't believe me? Take it from a future Hall of Famer.

"He [Lowry] is tough," said Clippers point guard Chris Paul post-game. "Kyle has been playing amazing this year. Luckily, we are not both rookies, so it is not our first time playing against each other. That team is playing with a lot of confidence."

Lowry continues to be a player worthy of your NBA All-Star vote, Raptors fans. Vote now. Vote often.

The Underrated Raptor

Speaking of potential All-Stars, it was great to see Jonas Valanciunas in the frontcourt mix with first ballot returns earlier this week and performances like Saturday's (22 pts, 8-13 FGM-A, 11 reb) should only help to keep him in that conversation.

With increased minutes and touches, Valanciunas has averaged 12.8 points and 9.1 rebounds over 13 games in December. In his last two games against two of the league's better frontcourts in the Bulls and Clippers, that's risen to 21 and 10. The big man continues to look increasingly comfortable and confident in the post as this season wears on and appears poised to take his game to a new level in his third season.

That's A Rap

"Second half, we did a much better job [on defense]. In the first half we fouled way too much, put them on the line, and made life hard on ourselves. Second half, we made adjustments and played with our feet instead of our hands, and did a much better job." - Head coach Dwane Casey, on turning things around defensively against the Clippers

By The Numbers

8-0 - Raptors record in the first game of back-to-back sets this season. They're 4-3 in the second game so far.

10-4 - Raptors record in 14 games without DeMar DeRozan this season

40-28 - Points in the paint favouring the Raptors

16-9 - Fast break points favouring the Raptors

8-2 - Raptors record against the Western Conference

They Said It

"We need him back, we want him back, and we can’t wait for him to get back, but for now we can’t pacify and make excuses because DeMar isn’t playing. Next man up." - Kyle Lowry on the Raptors' continued success in the absence of DeMar DeRozan

"They are a good team to play. They made us defend for a full 24 seconds and they keep moving the ball. They are a hard team to guard." - Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, on the Raptors

"That's the biggest thing about this team. We've got a great bench and we feed off of each other. It may not show in the stats, but a lot of different guys do a lot of different things. The second (unit) doesn't get as much credit as the starters, but we don't care." - Greivis Vasquez on the Raptors' bench stepping up once again

Up Next

The Raptors get little time to celebrate their win as it's off to Denver, where they'll play for a season series sweep of the Nuggets in the Mile High City on Sunday night (9 PM ET, Sportsnet, FAN 590)