Portland, OR – LaMarcus Aldridge recorded a double-double with 30 points and 12 rebounds, as the Portland Trail Blazers handled the Toronto Raptors, 92-74.
J.J. Hickson added 16 points and 11 boards for the Blazers, who have won eight straight against Toronto. Nolan Smith and Sasha Pavlovic had 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Portland won Monday's game without the services of forward Nicolas Batum (back) and guard Wesley Matthews (hip flexor).
"I thought Sasha Pavlovic played a terrific game -- defensively more than anything else, but he played heavy minutes and I thought he did a terrific job defensively and offensively. Obviously, LaMarcus did everything we needed from him," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "I thought it was a really good team win. We got a lot of good effort from a lot of people."
DeMar DeRozan ended with 20 points for the Raptors, who went winless on a five-game road trip to fall to 1-14 away from home this season. Ed Davis and Jose Calderon donated 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Toronto center Andrea Bargnani hurt his right elbow in the first quarter. X- rays came back negative. The Raptors also lost guard Kyle Lowry to a right triceps injury.
"He (Bargnani) landed on his elbow and lost feeling in his hand," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "We'll have to wait and see tomorrow how it is."
The Raptors held a 19-18 lead following a tight first quarter that featured seven lead changes and three ties.
With the score tied at 38 with 3:23 left in the second stanza, Portland closed out the half on a 6-2 spurt. Luke Babbitt's 22-foot jumper at the buzzer gave the Blazers a 44-40 edge at the break.
Holding a 49-46 lead with 9:24 remaining in the third frame, Portland put together a 13-2 run to create some distance. Aldridge and Hickson each tallied five points during the surge to make it a 62-48 game.
Toronto stayed in the game by scoring the final nine points of the quarter, which cut the gap to 64-59.
Ahead by seven, 75-68, with 6:30 to play, the Blazers went on an 8-0 spurt to pull away. Babbitt's slam, Pavlovic's layup, Damian Lillard's two free throws and Hickson's alley-oop dunk made it an 83-68 contest.
Game Notes
Toronto's Amir Johnson was ejected in the third quarter for arguing with an official ... The Raptors went 3-for-21 from beyond the arc, while the Blazers failed to make a 3-pointer on 20 attempts ... Matthews missed a game for the first time in his four-year NBA career. He had played in 250 straight games.
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