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Morris Peterson
Points: 27
Rebounds: 9
Assists:6
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| We came up short tonight. We battled back, but we didn’t play our brand of basketball in the first three quarters. - Peterson
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The raps went to the line just 15 times.
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| Team |
RB |
ST |
BLK |
TOT |
| NOK |
58 |
7 |
7 |
72 |
| TOR |
56 |
8 |
2 |
66
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April 2, 2006
TORONTO (CP) -- One more basket or one more free throw would have made a big difference to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday. Instead, they were left rueing missed chances and musing about bad rims.
Rookie Chris Paul notched his first career triple-double as the New Orleans Hornets needed double overtime to beat the Raptors 120-113.
Paul scored 22 points, dished out 12 assists and collected 12 rebounds before a crowd of 15, 079 at the Air Canada Centre.
Charlie V. brought down a career high 18 rebounds. (Ron Turenne/NBAE/Getty Images)
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``This is huge for our confidence,'' he said. ``We're in a tough situation right now where we're trying to fight for the eighth spot in the playoffs. We knew we had Detroit coming up so we knew we really needed this one.''
Toronto (26-47) has lost four straight while the Hornets (35-37) won their third in a row.
The Raptors had chances to win the game at the end of regulation and the first overtime, but missed both times as their record slumped to 1-9 in overtime.
Mike James finished with 15 points but made only five of 25 attempts and missed a potential game-winning lay-up at the end of the fourth quarter.
``Every time I shoot it I feel good about it going in, it's just sometimes me and the rim just don't agree,'' said James. ``For 20 of the shots that I took tonight, me and the rim weren't on good terms. I normally treat her good but tonight maybe she's a little mad at me. That's all right. I'm going to give her flowers and candy before the next game.''
Morris Peterson led Toronto with 27 points, but agreed that the big shots weren't falling.
``It seemed like the rim was moving or something,'' he said.
Peterson had the ball with 3.5 seconds left in the first overtime session, but his jumper from the top of the key missed wide right.
``I didn't get the shot I wanted,'' he said. ``I tried to give a pump fake and he was still right there. After the game I felt I should have taken the ball to the basket.''
Toronto fell apart in the second overtime, when they were outscored 20-13.
``We kind of hit a wall,'' Peterson said.
Charlie Villanueva scored 25 points and added a career-high 18 rebounds for the Raptors while fellow rookie Joey Graham added a career-high 19.
Toronto coach Sam Mitchell was disappointed by a lack of chances at the free throw line. The Raptors went 11 for 15 from the stripe, while New Orleans was 26-31.
``They kept penetrating and getting to the free throw line,'' he said. ``We just don't have guys who can penetrate like that.''
David West returned after missing three games with a sprained left ankle to score 23 points for the Hornets, while Linton Johnson added 18. Speedy Claxton had eight points and 12 assists.
Toronto trailed by as many as 18 points in the third quarter and were 10 points adrift with just under five minutes left in the fourth before reeling off a 10-0 run to knot the score at 93-93. Villanueva scored the tying basket after Graham forced a turnover.
Thirty seconds later, Graham gave Toronto its first lead since the opening quarter with a pair of free throws as the Raptors led 95-93.
New Orleans' Marc Jackson tied the game with a 15-foot jumper with 25.8 seconds left, before James' lay-up bounced off the rim.
The Raptors built a five-point lead in the first overtime, but two free throws by Paul tied the score at 100-100 with 17.7 seconds to go.
Former Raptor Aaron Williams scored eight points in the first quarter, and finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.
Notes: Toronto has gone to overtime in eight of their past 27 games. a The last time the Raptors played a double overtime games was November 16, 2003. a The Raptors fall to 6-7 on Sundays. a Former Raptors head coach Darrell Walker is an assistant to Hornets head coach Byron Scott. a The Raptors conclude a four-game homestand on Tuesday night when they host the Boston Celtics. Game time is 7:00 p.m.
