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Sunday, Mar. 5 3:00pm ET
Vancouver loses it from the line | |||||
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- Air Canada didn't disappoint in his first appearance in Western Canada. Vince Carter delighted Vancouver's first sellout crowd of the season, scoring 10 of his 28 points in the final five minutes, as the Toronto Raptors beat the Grizzlies 94-92 on Sunday.
"Vince has been doing that all year," said Toronto's Dell Curry, who had 16 points in 14 minutes off the bench. "He's only going to get better. A guy like that, you've got to treat him like we do other guys. You've got to double right away and make other players beat you." Carter, who didn't make an appearance in Vancouver in his rookie season because of the lockout, gave the Raptors an 84-82 lead with 4:26 remaining on a steal and reverse dunk. He then scored eight of Toronto's final 10 points as the Raptors won their fifth straight. "I don't like the fact he gets compared with Jordan," said Doug West, who finished with four points and two assists in 12 minutes. "But some of the (stuff) he did tonight, I was like, 'Huh?' I used to see Mike do that. "He does some incredible things. And he handles the ball a lot better than he did last year. The sky's the limit for him." Carter fouled out with 15.8 seconds left and Toronto leading 92-88, but the Grizzlies were unable to pull out the win. Mike Bibby missed a wide open layup at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime. Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 22 points and 14 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who failed again to match their franchise win mark of 19, set in 1997-98. Othella Harrington had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Michael Dickerson added 20 points. Abdur-Rahim and Carter got into a bit of a tussle at midcourt, showing signs of a developing rivalry between the two players in Canada. "That's just playing hard," he said. "We grew up together and played against each other forever. That's just two guys who know each other and have been friends for a long time, just competing and having fun." Charles Oakley had 14 points for the Raptors, who tied a team record with their third consecutive road victory. The Raptors are eight games over .500 for the first time in their five-year existence. The Grizzlies hurt themselves from the line. After making their first 11 free throws, they missed 10 of their last 24 attempts. "You hate to say that the game boils down to that, but as a professional team you have to make free throws," Grant Long said. "In a game like this where so much is riding on it, you have to step up and make free throws. And we didn't do that collectively. We had opportunity after opportunity and we missed." Vancouver trailed by two early in the first before a 16-6 run to end the quarter gave them a 28-20 lead. They held the lead throughout the half, but a baseline jumper by Curry at the buzzer, brought the Raptors within 47-46 at halftime. Curry scored the Raptors' last six points of the third on a pair of 3-pointers to tie the game at 70.
Game notes | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Toronto Clubhouse Vancouver Clubhouse RECAPS Utah 88 New York 79
Toronto 94
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