Anthony Davis scored 25 points as the New Orleans Pelicans handed the Toronto Raptors their first home loss.
Jrue Holiday scored 29 points and 14 assists and E’Twaun Moore scored 30 points as the visiting New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Toronto Raptors 126-110 on Monday night.
Anthony Davis added 25 points and 20 rebounds for the Pelicans, who won their third game in a row by handing the Raptors their first home loss in eight games this season. Toronto are 12-2 overall.
Pascal Siakam scored 22 points for the Raptors. Kawhi Leonard added 20 points, Serge Ibaka had 19 points and 14 rebounds, OG Anunoby 17 points and Fred VanVleet and Delon Wright 10 points each.
The Pelicans took an 11-point lead into the fourth quarter. But, it was down to six after one minute when the Raptors had a 7-2 surge.
The Pelicans regained the 11-point advantage on a three-pointer by Darius Miller. When Moore scored on a layup with 8:39 to play, the lead was increased to 14.
The Raptors trimmed the deficit to nine before Davis made consecutive lay-ups. Holiday hit a three-pointer and assisted on a Moore basket to increase the lead to 17 with 4:24 to play.
The Pelicans defense successfully kept Toronto’s danger-men in check, with Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam restricted to 20 and 22 points respectively.
Point guard Kyle Lowry was held to just four points from 33 minutes on court as the Eastern Conference-leading Raptors fell to 12-2.
This loss was their first at home. Their first with Kawhi Leonard in the lineup, and just their second in 14 games. The loss came against a Pelicans club Raptors head coach Nick Nurse called an ‘offensive juggernaut’ in the morning. The Anthony Davis-led Pelicans shot 55 per cent from the floor and never really allowed the Raptors to feel like they were ever going to control the game.
“It just felt like we were just not quite with much pace and readiness on defense wasn’t good enough,” said Nurse. “And I give them a lot of credit and you know this is going to happen in this league. They’re going to see a team that was 12-1, right? They’re coming in after a couple of wins, they’re very talented. They were ultra-focused and they made a lot of shots and they played great.”
Siakam was good again on Monday night – maybe the Raptors’ best player with 22 points on 12 shots in 28 minutes. But he can’t overcome mediocre outings from Lowry, Leonard (20 points on 7-of-20 shooting) and the rest. The result was predictable, particularly with Davis (25 points and 20 rebounds) and Jrue Holiday (29 points and 14 assists) having their way and – in Holiday’s case, having his way with Lowry on both ends. It’s not often Lowry is going to get man-handled 29-2.
“Jrue always tried to guard the best perimeter guy,” said Davis. “He did a good job on Lowry, made him take some tough shots. He didn’t have it going tonight. Jrue’s first-team all-defense for a reason, he takes every match-up personally and I think he did a good job.”
Next up for the Raptors is a Wednesday night meeting with the Detroit Pistons.
Peace,
Burke
