For one night at least, the Toronto Raptors were the road warriors.
With only a single road victory all season in the books — at New Orleans — the Raptors nearly blew a fourth-quarter lead, but escaped Atlanta with a 122-119 win following a frantic finish on Thursday night.
Toronto won for the fourth time in five games, with Scottie Barnes scoring 25, Bruce Brown adding 18 off the bench and Jakob Poeltl and Chris Boucher 17. Gradey Dick scored 15, including 11 in the first half.
Hawks superstar Trae Young shook off a terrible first three quarters with a sublime fourth, turning the tide nearly on his own, but faltered down the stretch, mixing poor shots with good looks that wouldn’t fall and Barnes stepped up, as did a swarming overall Toronto defence.
Young finished with 18 points and 13 assists, but shot just 7-for-19. Bogdan Bogdanovic had 23, Dyson Daniels 22, but only two in the second half.
The Raptors no longer have the NBA’s worst road record. Still, the franchise has never won fewer than six road games in a season, even shortened campaigns, and is now more than halfway through this year’s road schedule with only two.
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But this was a positive night for the team. Toronto clung to a five-point lead after three, despite shooting 62.9% from the field. Young then wiped out an eight point Raptors edge with seven points and three assists, forcing the Raptors to call timeout.
Young then assisted on a dunk and followed with a three-pointer to push Atlanta’s lead to five points.
He did take some bad shots though, which allowed the Raptors to stick around. Barnes hit a three-pointer and Barrett hit a spinning layup as Toronto tied the game, setting up the exciting finish.
Toronto forced Young to give up the ball and the Hawks couldn’t beat the shot clock. Barnes then hit a tough jumper to stretch the lead to three with under a minute remaining. Poeltl then stayed right with Young, but Bogdan Bogdanovic got free for a layup. Barnes then missed, but the Hawks couldn’t get a Young three-pointer to drop, or a DeAndre Hunter layup and Poeltl finished it off with clutch free throws.
Atlanta entered scuffling, with two losses in a row, including one a night earlier, but beat Toronto by 29 on December 29 at Scotiabank Arena. That game had been a horrible one for Barnes, who committed a career-worst eight turnovers. But Barnes rebounded with a strong effort, including only one turnover.
The Raptors lost Kelly Olynyk, who had played well again with 11 points, five assists and four rebounds in only 14 minutes around the midway part of the fourth due to right calf tightness.
Atlanta lost star power forward Jalen Johnson to a first half shoulder injury, and he was not able to return.
The Hawks did have top defender Daniels this time after he missed the previous blowout win over the Raptors, and Daniels helped replace Johnson’s missing offence with 20 points.
The teams will play again in Atlanta on Saturday in an odd quirk of the schedule, with Toronto returning home to host New Orleans on Monday
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