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MINNEAPOLIS — Before the Toronto Raptors defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 105-82 Sunday night at the Target Center, head coach Sam Mitchell talked about how a team must "earn the right to win" by the way it plays, regardless of the opponent.
The Raptors had not done that so well last Friday at the Air Canada Centre in a game they figured to win but lost 102-98 to the Los Angeles Clippers, another of the NBA's weaker teams.
The Raptors did not make that mistake Sunday night. Sure, they let a 12-point second-quarter lead melt to four points at halftime, but they asserted themselves in the second half by playing stronger defence and driving for the basket as they improved their record to 27-22 and dropped the Timberwolves to 10-39.
"We talked about that the last couple of days," Mitchell said. "We started off by building a [12-point] lead and then we let them back in the game with four minutes to go [in the half]. We can't continue to do that. We started to settle for jump shots and stopped being aggressive with the basketball. Our defence got lax. We came back out in the third quarter and kind of got it going."
Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh dunks the ball during the first half of the Raptors' game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis on Sunday. (Eric Miller/Reuters)
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- Minnesota Timberwolves
- Toronto Raptors
- Andrea Bargnani
- Chris Bosh
- Jose Calderon
- T.J. Ford
- Marko Jaric
- Al Jefferson
- Rasho Nesterovic
"Any time you have a winnable game, you have to go and get it," forward Chris Bosh said. "You just can't just show up and expect to win."
The Raptors will play Monday against a different quality of opponent when they play the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The Raptors defeated the Spurs 83-73 on Dec. 28 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.
The Timberwolves were easy prey for the Raptors Sunday night after giving the Boston Celtics, who have the best record in the NBA, a tough go last Friday before losing 88-86 on the final play of the game.
Sunday night, Raptors point guards Jose Calderon (10) and T.J. Ford (13) combined for 23 of the team's 31 assists.
"We just have to continue to do that," Mitchell said. "In the first half, I didn't think we moved the ball as well as we should have."
At halftime, Mitchell said, "we just talked about what we needed to do."
Andrea Bargnani led the Raptors with 16 points. Five players were in double figures in scoring: Calderon had 15 points, Bosh 14, Jason Kapono 12 and Anthony Parker 10.
Centre Al Jefferson led the Timberwolves with 18 points and guard Marko Jaric scored 11.
"They just had more energy than us," Jefferson said.
"I always want us to come in and bury teams when we get the chance," Bosh said. "But you know, it's the NBA and they're going to make runs. We just kept playing. We refocused in the second half. We talked about it and we saw what we could do better and we did a good job of maintaining our intensity throughout the fourth quarter."
"We just tried to get everybody involved," Calderon said. "We just tried to find the wide-open guys and I think both of us [Calderon and Ford] did a really good job today."
Calderon said the key was to come out playing better defensively in the second half, and that opened up chances for the offence.
"When our defence is good, we get more opportunities for fast breaks," he said.
Ford returned to the lineup last Monday in a romp over the Miami Heat after not playing since suffering an arm stringer in a game in Atlanta on Dec. 11.
Before he was injured, Ford was the starting point guard. Now that he is working his way back into the lineup, he is playing with the second unit coming off the bench and making it better than it was when he was not playing.
"I think everybody is understanding their roles out there," Ford said. "I think we're enjoying being out there with each other."
"He's slowly getting back to where he needs to be," Mitchell said. "He and Jose had 23 points. You can't get much better out of your point guards."
"When the second unit comes in, there's no letdown," Bosh said. "It just continues to move."
