TORONTO (AP) - Now that the Cavaliers don’t have LeBron James, it’s payback time for the teams they used to bully.
Oh, and it’s also pizza time for Toronto fans.
With 10 seconds left in a blowout win over the Cavs, Marcus Banks sent up an alley-oop pass that Leandro Barbosa neatly laid in to give the Raptors a 101-81 win over the Cavaliers, who won their first game in the post-LeBron era two nights earlier.
“We weren’t trying to disrespect them, we weren’t trying to humiliate them or nothing,” Raptors guard Sonny Weems said. “We did that for our fans. You get 100 points, fans get pizza and that’s every game with us.”
Asked about the layup that secured a free slice of pizza for all 15,711 fans in attendance, Scott said “no comment.”
Raptors counterpart Jay Triano had plenty to say, though.
“You know, how many years did we watch them dance down there with all the hoop and hollering and everything?” he said. “It’s a different team so it probably wasn’t the right thing to do to score, but our fans come to these games and they’re going to be here to support us for 41 games and we play this team three more times.”
Andrea Bargnani scored 20 points and Linas Kleiza added 19 to lead the Toronto Raptors to a 101-81 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night in a matchup of teams spurned by stars over the summer.
Antawn Jamison scored 13 points for the Cavaliers, who were without Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao. Williams has an injured groin and Varejao was with his ill father.
DeMar DeRozan added 14 points while Sonny Weems and Leandro Barbosa chipped in 13 each for the Raptors (1-1), who got their first win since Chris Bosh left to join James with the Miami Heat.
Anthony Parker added 10 points for the Cavaliers, including a 3-pointer to end the first half with Cleveland down 46-38.
“We went backwards,” Cleveland coach Byron Scott said. “We just seemed like the fat cats and they seemed like a team that was really out there trying to get a win.”
Toronto closed the third quarter on a 17-5 run capped by DeRozan’s reverse layup that made it 77-55.
Friday morning, Bosh went on a Toronto radio station to clarify comments he made earlier in the week, explaining he meant he wanted the best chance to win titles when he said that the decision to join Miami was “all about being on TV at the end of the day.”
Notes: The Raptors’ Jarret Jack turned 27 on Thursday and Triano said the team’s rookies sang “Happy Birthday” to Jack in the morning. “We had to teach it to them,” Triano added. The players had a party at a nightclub planned for him after the game. … Bargnani’s three-pointer early in the second quarter gave him sole possession of third place on the Raptors’ career list. He and Doug Christie had been tied at 431. Morris Peterson is the team leader with 801, followed by Vince Carter’s 554. … Parker and fellow former Raptor Jamario Moon were given nice ovations during pre-game introductions.
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