Rockets

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Before the fourth quarter began. Toronto led an undermanned Pelicans team by 24 through three quarters, and was able to rest its starters on the second night of a back-to-back in the 115-91 victory. The win moves the Raptors to 49-23 and ties a franchise record for wins in a season.

New Orleans has been bitten by the injury bug all season and things aren’t getting any easier down the homestretch of the regular season. The Pelicans were without Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, Jrue Holiday, Quincy Pondexter, Norris Cole, Tyreke Evans, Eric Gordon, and Bryce Dejean-Jones on Saturday night. On Toronto’s side, Terrence Ross missed his second consecutive game with a sore left thumb.

DeMar DeRozan bounced back from a rough outing and early exit against the Houston Rockets on Friday night to score a  game-high 23 points to go with five rebounds and five assists in 30 minutes. DeRozan shot 9-for-11 from the floor, 1-for-2 from beyond the arc and was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

Rookie Norman Powell played 34 minutes against the Pelicans and had another solid showing. Powell scored 15 points on 5-for-11 shooting, and added seven rebounds and two assists. He also had the play of the game when he drove the lane and elevated for the throwdown, letting out a fired-up yell and a flex upon landing. Powell is averaging 26 minutes per game over his previous five contests as he continues to take advantage of the opportunities presented to him.

“It was a good bounce-back game. I liked our defensive focus. Defensively we did what we wanted to do. I don't care who was playing, who is hurt whatever. We came out with the right defensive focus and that was important.” - Dwane Casey pleased with his team's approach against a depleted Pelicans team

53…Percent shooting for the Raptors, compared to 44 percent shooting for the Pelicans.

48…Rebounds for the Raptors, 36 for the Pelicans.

5…A career-high five blocked shots for Jonas Valanaciunas who also had 10 points, nine rebounds and an assist.

12…Made 3-pointers for the Raptors (on 29 attempts), compared to just four for New Orleans (on 15 attempts).

7Players in double figures for Toronto: DeMar DeRozan (23), Patrick Patterson (16), Norman Powell (15), Luis Scola (12), Kyle Lowry (11), James Johnson (11), Jonas Valanciunas (10).

“We tied it? That’s cool, man. That’s really cool. I think it’s just something that we keep getting better. The last couple of games we just keep getting better and growing.”- Kyle Lowry when told the team had tied its franchise record for wins“I think he’s done a heck of a job. He’s earned it. We’ve got to continue to go with him until things change [injury wise].”- Dwane Casey on how Norman Powell has done stepping up in place of injured teammates“Being aggressive. Understanding the timing, understanding the ball movement, understanding the rotations. That’s going to continue to get better every single game we play whether it’s a big game or a game we played tonight where we get a big lead and take advantage of it. It’s great for him to be in a position like this honestly. Being on a winning team, being in the position he is, he’s taking advantage of it.”- DeMar DeRozan on Norman Powell improving game by game“It was a great game for us. We continued to get better throughout the game. We ended up playing a team that is depleted but they played extremely hard. They’re well coached.”- Kyle Lowry on an important bounce-back game“I think it’s been really good for me. Getting comfortable playing with two All-Stars, knowing where they like to be, knowing where they like to get their shots. Playing off them has really helped me. They draw so much attention. Being able to get to open areas on the floor and hit open shots really helps them.”- Norman Powell on getting used to playing with the starting lineup

Up next: The Raptors head home to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Air Canada Centre on Monday at 7:30 P.M. ET.

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Game Rap: Raptors 115, Pelicans 91

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DeMar DeRozan was called for a foul against Patrick Beverley with a minute remaining. Upon review, the foul was upgraded to a flagrant and Beverley went one of two from the line to put the Rockets ahead by five. Because of the flagrant, the Rockets also retained possession. After a Clint Capela bucket to extend the Houston lead to seven with 19.3 seconds remaining, the Raptors ran out of time. The 113-107 loss dropped Toronto to 41-20 on the season.

Toronto got off to a solid start, and led by 18 points midway through the second quarter after a Kyle Lowry 3-pointer. Houston made a late push to close the half, and the Raptors led by 10 points, 61-51, at the break.

Although James Harden started to heat up in the third and scored 12 points in the quarter, DeMar DeRozan matched his quarter scoring total. DeRozan’s 12 points were half of Toronto’s 24 points in the quarter and helped Toronto go into the fourth ahead by seven despite the Rockets defence holding the Raptors to 43 percent shooting following 52-percent shooting in the first half.

James Harden wasted little time getting to work in the final quarter. After Houston struggled from deep for the first three quarters, the 3-pointers started falling in the fourth and the Rockets came charging back behind an 18-point quarter from Harden who finished with 40 points while playing the entire second half. Despite tired legs and playing on the second night of a back-to-back, the Rockets outscored Toronto 36-22 in the fourth, shooting 71 percent from the floor.

Luis Scola scored 21 points in 21 minutes to lead the Raptors in scoring. Scola shot 9-for-13 from the floor, 2-for-4 from beyond the arc and 1-for-2 from the free throw line. He added three rebounds and a steal as the Raptors were a +7 while he was on the floor.

Kyle Lowry scored 17 points in 38 minutes of action. He shot 5-for-10 from the floor and made four of his seven attempts from deep, while adding a team-high nine assists, four rebounds and three steals.

“That’s been our weakness all year. I’ve said that millions of times. We’ve luckily won some of those games, but I’ve always said it’s going to come back and bite us. We have to keep the same intensity when we get leads, the same quality of possessions offensively.”- Dwane Casey on his team losing after being up big

16… Turnovers for Toronto, leading to 21 points for the Rockets.3… Technical fouls called in the game: Two for Houston, one on head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and one on Patrick Beverley. On Toronto’s side, Dwane Casey picked up a rare technical.2… Flagrant fouls called: One on Houston’s Dwight Howard and one on Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan.40… Points scored by James Harden who also added a game-high 14 assists. Harden shot 11-for-20 from the floor, 3-for-7 from three, 15-for-19 from the free throw line and added five rebounds and an assist in 43 minutes.11… Rebounds for Jonas Valanciunas who notched his 15th double-double of the season. Valanciunas scored 12 points, reaching double-figures in a career-high 14 consecutive games.

“It’s the kind of thing that has been occurring too much for us. We have to get better defensively. We are giving up 100 points like it’s nothing. Coach probably said it in his postgame press conference and as a team we all agree that we have to get better defensively.”- Kyle Lowry on losing a large first-half lead“We are so used to trying to protect the paint, keep the ball out of the paint and not let teams get easy shots in the paint. Sometimes we lose focus and [we have to] understand that we have to get out to the 3-point line as well. We can’t let teams get going and we have to run them off the line and continue to do that.”- DeMar DeRozan on needing to get better at guarding the 3-point line“I thought his hustle and his intensity was good, getting us started. He and Pat [Patterson] both, I thought, gave it to us.”- Dwane Casey on the play of Luis Scola“The defensive coach has been on us all year about that. We just have to figure out a way to lock in. Try to get better at it. Contain the 3-point ball and do better defensively. For us it’s just one game. We stay positive and it’s still an impressive home record right now. We’ve got Brooklyn on Tuesday. We are continuing to take it day-by-day and game-by-game.”- Kyle Lowry on guarding the 3-point line and shifting focus to the next game

The Brooklyn Nets will take on the Raptors at Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night at 7:30 P.M. ET.

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Game Rap: Raptors 107, Rockets 113

Toronto (41-19) faces Houston (30-32) tonight at Air Canada Centre for the first of two meetings this month. The Raptors had a day off yesterday after their shootout win over Portland Friday night. The Rockets are on the second of a back to back following a 108-100 loss in Chicago last night.

Trevor Ariza – James Harden is the focal point of this Houston offence and the attention he gets creates opportunities for others including Ariza. The 30-year old’s ability to shoot the long ball opens up defences and allows room for both Harden and Dwight Howard to operate. In his second stint with the Rockets, Ariza is averaging 12 points, five rebounds and two assists a game.

Norman Powell&lt;/strong – The Raptors rookie seemed to have dropped down the pecking order after losing his place in the starting lineup to James Johnson. That didn’t faze Powell as the 22-year old put his head down, worked hard and waited for his next opportunity. After an impressive display with Raptors 905 (36p, 12r, 6a), Powell was recalled the following day and immediately inserted into the starting lineup, tasked with guarding the Blazers C.J. McCollum. He responded with his best game of the season, finishing with 10 points and six rebounds in a Raps win.

It’s been difficult to keep up with all the records and milestones being set by this Raptors team this season.

The 65 fouls called in Friday’s game provided an opportunity for even more landmarks for both the players and team as a whole.

Toronto ended up going to the free throw line 54 times, converting 43 of them. Both attempts and makes were franchise highs for the Raptors.

It was also a big night for DeMar DeRozan. The Raps shooting guard was responsible for 25 of his team’s free-throw attempts of which he made all but one. The 24 successful free throws was a single-game team record previously held by Chris Bosh and Vince Carter (22). Unfortunately for DeRozan, his sole miss resulted in him losing the NBA record of consecutive made free throws in a game without a miss, held by Dominique Wilkins (23).

In the end, the record did not matter, with the Raptors emerging victorious. The 26-year old scored a team-high 38 points and in the process became only the third player in franchise history to score 9,000 points alongside Bosh and Carter.

As has been the case this year, DeRozan was unaware of the feat when he was reminded by the media after the game.

“I don’t know anything until you all tell me, or I read it on Twitter.” Well, congrats DeMar.

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Game Day: Raptors vs. Rockets

HOUSTON (CP) - The Houston Rockets needed a spark against the Toronto Raptors to bounce back from a loss to Dallas in which they were so lethargic that coach Kevin McHale said it looked like they were wearing "mud shoes.''

Corey Brewer provided that spark, coming off the bench to score a season-high 26 points and help the Rockets cruise to a 98-76 win on Saturday night.

James Harden scored 16 of his 20 points in Houston's big third quarter to help in the victory.

"Last night was a rough game,'' Brewer said of Friday's loss. "We didn't have any energy coming back from the break and it bit us pretty bad. So I felt like I had to bring energy I tried to come out and play hard and everything worked out.''

Harden, who leads the NBA in scoring, got off to a tough start and had just four points by halftime. The Rockets led by four points with less than 4 minutes left in the third before going on a 12-1 run, with seven points from Harden, to take a 68-53 lead into the fourth and end his night.

"We didn't play a clean game, but we played hard,'' McHale said. "We looked lively and we looked bouncy.''

A night after handling Atlanta 105-80, the Raptors had a chance to extend their road winning streak to a franchise-record six games. Instead, they were done in by 23 turnovers to snap a four-game winning streak overall and lose away from home for the first time since Jan. 21.

"They were hungrier, played harder and did all the hard and grimy things that we did last night that we didn't do tonight,'' Toronto coach Dwayne Casey said of Houston.

James Johnson's 27 points led the Raptors, who entered averaging 105.6 points a game but struggled with a Houston defence that tied a season-high with 17 steals and had nine blocked shots.

"It's about effort and energy,'' Harden said. "When you have the entire team playing like that for four quarters, it's tough to beat us.''

Brewer also had 10 rebounds and five steals for Houston and Terrence Jones added 11 points, nine rebounds and three blocks.

Toronto scored five straight points to cut the lead to 47-44 with about 7 minutes left in the third quarter. Harden had made just one of his first eight shots and was 0 of 4 on 3-pointers when he hit his first one to end Houston's scoring drought. That 3 was the first of a 9-4 run by Houston, which included a second 3 by Harden, that stretched the lead to 56-48 with 5 minutes left in the quarter.

The Raptors scored eight straight points early in the second quarter, thanks to two 3-pointers, to take a 26-23 lead about 10 minutes before halftime.

Houston then used a 12-1 spurt to regain a 35-27 lead midway through the quarter. Brewer led the way during that stretch, scoring six points and finding Jones on an alley-oop dunk. Brewer's two-handed slam capped the run and brought the home crowd to its feet.

The Raptors had five turnovers and Jones blocked two shots to help Houston build the lead.

Toronto finally cleaned things up and outscored Houston 9-5 the rest of the half to cut the lead to 40-36 at halftime.

Raptors: Kyle Lowry, who played for the Rockets from 2009-12, finished with 11 points on 2 of 13 shooting. Saturday was the first of four straight games against the Western Conference for Toronto. The Raptors are 12-8 against the West this season.

Rockets: Saturday's game was the start of five straight games at home for Houston. The Rockets wore jerseys to commemorate this week's Lunar New Year.

NEW FACES: G Pablo Prigioni and G/F KJ McDaniels, both acquired in trades on Thursday, made their debuts for Houston on Saturday night. McHale said before the game that he wanted to get a practice in before playing them, but put both in late in the fourth quarter with Houston up big. Prigioni was traded from the Knicks and McDaniels from the 76ers.

Rockets

Game Rap: Raptors 115, Pelicans 91

Game Rap: Raptors 107, Rockets 113

Game Day: Raptors vs. Rockets

Raptors Can't Stop Rockets On The Road