Tipped off already, Warriors covered 113-112. That might explain late line movement. Glad I bet Warriors last night.
The Toronto Raptors blew a glorious chance to put some distance between themselves and the Chicago Bulls on Monday night.
Facing a lowly Golden State Warrior team, the Raptors began the game sluggish and eventually fell 113-112 at the Air Canada Centre.
Rookie guard Stephen Curry powered the Warriors' offence by pouring in 29 points and 12 assists while forward Corey Maggette added 31 points.
The loss ruined a terrific game by Raptors forward Chris Bosh, who scored 42 points and 12 rebounds.
Despite their struggles through most of the game, the Raptors had one final chance to pull out an unlikely victory.
After Bosh made both free throws to cut Golden State's lead to one point with 2.7 seconds remaining, Sonny Weems stole the inbounds pass and flipped a blind, desperation pass back toward the paint. Bosh grabbed the ball but his close-in attempt fell short.
"Sonny made a spectacular play," said Bosh, who also added five steals. "Everything else just happened so fast, I really didn't have time to react. I just wanted to get a shot up, and I guess I missed it.
"I didn't really get a good look at how it came off."
Toronto (38-38), currently eighth in the Eastern Conference, is only one game ahead of Chicago (37-39) for the final playoff berth.
The Raptors also drop two full games behind Charlotte for seventh place.
"[We] couldn't make shots," coach Jay Triano said. "We have been shooting the ball very well, I think we've been over 50 per cent, and when we shoot 40 ... that's not us.
"We just had a bunch of guys that didn't make shots tonight, and [the Warriors] did."
With little to play for in the standings, the Warriors (23-53) did manage to give Don Nelson his 1,332th win, a victory that ties him with Lenny Wilkens for most wins by an NBA head coach.
"What a game to tie the record, unbelievable," Nelson said. "This is about everything you would want from good to bad, to playing great, to wetting the bed, and we did about all of that. Somehow we prevailed."
Curry, the seventh overall pick in the 2009 draft, is quickly making several general managers regret they ever passed on him. The son of former Raptor Dell Curry, Stephen is a rookie of the year candidate.
He buried the Raptors with several key shots and scored 21 points in the second half. The point guard showed the confidence of a seasoned veteran in the fourth quarter, draining three three-pointers and a pair of free throws in the final seconds to help hold off Toronto's surge.
"He's tough," Raptors guard Jarrett Jack said. "He does a great job of being aggressive, staying aggressive and leading his team."
Andrea Bargnani chipped in with 18 points and nine rebounds for Toronto, which had its three-game winning streak snapped. Jack played a pivotal role in the Raptors' attempted comeback from a 16-point deficit in the fourth. Jack scored 14 points in the final quarter after scoring only five through the first 36 minutes of the game.
Toronto has six games remaining and faces a rough stretch this week that includes contests against Cleveland, Boston and Atlanta.
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***raptors/warriors time change***
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