Wizards 106 Raptors 102
TORONTO — Antawn Jamison’s big fourth quarter silenced the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday.
Jamison scored 10 of his game-high 30 points in the final quarter as Washington beat Toronto 106-102, handing the reeling Raptors their fourth loss in a row.
With Toronto threatening to reclaim the lead late in the game, Jamison buried a long jumper before holding his index finger to his lips as if to shush the crowd. Haywood followed with an emphatic block on Bosh’s layup attempt, and Washington (6-10) held on from there en route to its third win in the last four games.
Gilbert Arenas had 22 points and nine rebounds while Caron Butler added 19 points and seven rebounds in his 500th career NBA game to pace the Wizards (6-10). Brendan Haywood chipped in with 15 points and nine rebounds in the victory.
Chris Bosh scored 18 of his 22 points in the second quarter, while Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon added 20 apiece for the Raptors (7-12), who lost for the eighth time in the past 10 games. And just like every other loss during that string, Toronto was undone by an uneven second-half performance in front of 15,776 fans at the Air Canada Centre.
The Raptors were downright abysmal in the fourth, shooting just 8-for-23. The Wizards finished 11-for-16 in the quarter.
“I thought we had good looks,” said Raptors head coach Jay Triano. “They changed up their coverages, but I thought we had the right guys shooting the basketball. What are you gonna do?”
Playing better in the second half would be a start.
Coming into the game, the Raptors had been outscored after halftime in nine straight games. Things looked more promising Tuesday, as Toronto quickly erased a one-point halftime deficit and led by four midway through the third quarter.
Calderon said the team has struggled to put together a complete performance — and knows it.
“We’ve gotta try to finish the games, try to play for a full game,” said Calderon. “We’ve been talking about that all season. We did a much better job today, but we just couldn’t finish. We missed some shots, and (there were) some turnovers.”