NBA: Hawks rip Raptors in the second half; Amir Johnson hurt

March 28, 2013 9:59am


The Atlanta Hawks dominated the second half en route to a 107-88 drubbing of the Toronto Raptors, Wednesday (Thursday, PHL time) at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada.

The Hawks improved to 40-32 in the East, clinching a playoff berth in the process, while the Raptors fell to 26-45, 11th in the same conference.

The Raptors actually led by 10 at the break, 54-44, thanks to the efforts of rookie Terrence Ross, who scored nine in the second period, but come the third, the two stalwarts of the Hawks, Josh Smith and Al Horford, scored 10 apiece to knot things entering the final 12 minutes of play, 75-all.

The two sides went back-and-forth early on, with Alan Anderson nailing a triple with 9:10 left to cut Toronto's deficit to a point, 81-80, but the visiting side countered with 16 unanswered, all from either Horford or point guard Jeff Teague. That armed Atlanta with a 97-80 bulge, 4:39 left to play.

A pair of DeMar DeRozan charities finally snapped Toronto's silence, 4:23 left in the game, and Jonas Valanciunas managed the Raptors next six, but that was also the last six points of his team, and two scores from rookie John Jenkins allowed Atlanta to waltz away with this one.

Horford led all scorers with 26 points, part of a double-double with 12 rebounds. Jeff Teague also had one comprised of 24 points and 13 assists, wile Josh Smith added 19 markers plus three steals.

Valanciunas top-scored for Toronto with 19 points and eight rebounds. Rudy Gay managed a double-double of 15 points and 12 boards, while DeMar DeRozan scattered 14 markers, but after shooting better than 50 percent in the first half, saw their percentage plummet to 34.3 percent in the latter part of the game, where they were also out-scored 12-2 in second-chance points.


Adding insult to the injury, Raptors forward Amir Johnson was sidelined early in the third with what was later reported as a left leg contusion. - AMD, GMA News