Davis Leads Raptors To Upset Of Mavs
DALLAS (AP) - Rookie Ed Davis scored a career-high 17 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, Linas Kleiza and DeMar DeRozan added 16 points apiece, and the short-handed Toronto Raptors pulled off an 84-76 upset of the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night.
The Raptors were missing several key players, but took advantage of the injury absence of Dallas' top scorer, Dirk Nowitzki.
Toronto, which had dropped its last 10 games in Dallas and had lost nine of its previous 11 overall, got 12 points each from Amir Johnson and Leandro Barbosa.
Jason Terry scored 18 points and Caron Butler 15 for the Mavericks, who had won 17 of their previous 18.
Nowitzki had an MRI exam earlier Tuesday that revealed a sprained right knee and the team said he was day to day. Nowitzki, seventh in the league with 24.1 points per game, was injured in the second quarter of Monday night's 103-93 victory at Oklahoma City.
Dallas led in the game's first minute, but trailed the rest of the way.
The Mavericks got as close as 71-68 with 7:41 left, but the Raptors answered with an 8-0 run capped by Davis' layup with 4:05 to play.
Toronto held a 48-24 edge on points in the paint.
The Raptors remain without top scorer (Andrea Bargnani, 21.2 points), leading rebounder Reggie Evans (12.1), starter Sonny Weems and long-range shooter Peja Stojakovic.
Starting guard Jose Calderon became the latest addition to the Raptors' injury list when he missed the game after hurting his ankle during Monday night's 96-85 loss at Memphis. Jerryd Bayless started, then went to the locker room in the fourth quarter with an ankle problem.
Kleiza shortened the Toronto bench even further when he was ejected with 5:14 left in the third quarter after drawing his second technical foul.
Tyson Chandler's three-point play off an alley-oop dunk got the Mavericks' crowd back in the game with 5:53 left in the third quarter, pulling his team within 56-51. But the Raptors were still able to carry a 64-59 lead into the final quarter.
Dallas trailed by as many as 12 in the second quarter, but Terry's 3-pointer with 17 seconds left trimmed the deficit to 46-40 at the break.
Toronto led 23-13 after one quarter, taking advantage of seven Mavericks turnovers and Dallas' 4-for-20 shooting from the floor.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
