7:00 PM ET, November 9, 2013
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
Top Performers
Utah: G. Hayward 24 Pts, 7 Reb, 4 Ast, 4 StlToronto: T. Hansbrough 23 Pts, 7 Reb, 2 Stl
Hansbrough Powers Raptors Past Jazz
They just didn't know how much it would hurt.
Tyler Hansbrough scored a season-high 23 points, DeMar DeRozan added 18 and the Toronto Raptors snapped a seven-game home losing streak against Utah, routing the winless Jazz 115-91 Saturday night.
"This is not fun," frustrated Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin said. "I don't think we showed up with the intensity that we needed to compete."
Jonas Valanciunas scored 14 points and Rudy Gay had 11 as the Raptors earned their first home victory over the Jazz since Dec. 22, 2004.
Hansbrough had seven rebounds and went 11 for 13 at the free throw line.
"I thought Hansbrough was a handful," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "That's the kind of intensity it takes to be a winning program. What he's doing is contagious."
Raptors guard Kyle Lowry sprained his right ankle on the final play of the first half and did not return. He finished with nine points.
"He just tweaked it," Casey said. "I think if he had to go, he'd have been OK."
Lowry was seen walking through the locker room after the game without crutches or a wrap, but with a slight limp.
With both teams playing for the fourth time in five days, struggling Utah was no match for a Raptors team that had lost four of its previous five, including three straight. Gordon Hayward scored 24 points and Derrick Favors had 17 for the Jazz.
"Way too many easy points," Hayward said. "Dunks, open 3's. Defensively, we weren't there."
Utah wrapped up a four-game road trip with its seventh straight defeat to begin the season, extending the team's worst start since its debut NBA season in New Orleans in 1974-75, when the Jazz lost their first 11 games.
"This ain't cool," fumed Jazz guard John Lucas. "I know it's seven games in, but still. I don't want anybody getting used to this."
Utah came in having won 14 of 15 in the series but never led in this one. When Gay hit a jumper at 8:33 of the second, putting Toronto up 41-20, it marked the fourth straight game the Jazz have trailed by 20 points or more.
"I thought there were times we felt a little sorry for ourselves out there tonight," Corbin said.
Utah, whose 97-73 loss at Chicago on Friday was their biggest margin of defeat this season, wasted no time matching that dubious mark against Toronto.
"We're searching for the answer," Hayward said. "We've got to keep working and try to get through this rough patch. We're struggling."
Alec Burks scored 17 points and Enes Kanter had 14 for the Jazz, who'll try for their first win of the season when they host Denver on Monday.
Corbin said playing in front of a friendly crowd will be a benefit to his young team, but stressed the need for improved performance, too.
"Just because we're going home, it's not going to just get better," Corbin said. "We've got to make it get better. We've got to come back and play and fight and compete.
"If we lose games fighting and competing, we can deal with that," Corbin added. "But we don't want to come in and just show up and think it's going to happen. We've got to make it happen."
Jazz forward Marvin Williams, who returned from a right Achilles injury Friday, went scoreless in 15 minutes, missing his three field goal attempts.
All nine of Lowry's points came in the first quarter. DeRozan and Valanciunas each added eight as Toronto built a 30-16 lead after one.
After missing his only field goal attempt in the first, Gay scored nine points in the second. Terrence Ross also had nine as the Raptors shot 57 percent (13 for 23) in the quarter and took a 62-36 edge into the break.
Game notes
Steve Novak was the only one of Toronto's 13 active players not to score a point. ... Utah finished 3 for 18 from 3-point range. ... Jazz G Brandon Rush (left knee) was not available. ... The Raptors wore camouflage uniforms in advance of Monday's Remembrance Day holiday. ... Toronto, which lost at undefeated Indiana on Friday, is the first team to face unbeaten and winless opponents on consecutive days since the 1974 Houston Rockets, who played the New Orleans Jazz (0-6) and Washington Bullets (7-0).
Copyright by STATS LLC and The Associated Press
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