Ross shoots surging Raptors over Blazers

Toronto, ON – Terrence Ross came off the bench and knocked down six 3-pointers en route to a career-high 26 points on Wednesday, as the Toronto Raptors routed the Portland Trail Blazers, 102-79, at Air Canada Centre.

DeMar DeRozan donated 24 points and Ed Davis followed with 19 points and seven rebounds for the Raptors, who have won three straight and eight of their last nine games.

"We've been efficient moving the basketball," Raptors coach Dwane Casey remarked of his team's recent play. "We have to keep playing determined. We have lots of games to go. We have to keep the effort up."

Toronto shot a scorching 53.2 percent (41-for-77) from the field and turned 18 Portland turnovers into 28 points to complete the wire-to-wire victory.

Rookie Damian Lillard paced Portland with 18 points and seven assists, while LaMarcus Aldridge registered a double-double with 14 points and 10 boards for the Blazers, who had won two straight.

"We didn't play well from the opening tip," Portland coach Terry Stotts lamented. "We were on our heels all night."

Davis and DeRozan got the Raptors going early, as the duo combined on a 10-0 run to give Toronto a double-digit lead just over 90 seconds into the contest.

The margin teetered around 10 for much of the quarter until a late 5-0 run from the Blazers cut their deficit to 24-17 heading into the second.

A Luke Babbitt 3-pointer brought Portland within 26-22 early in the second stanza, but the Raptors responded with an 18-5 spurt to push the lead back above double-digits.

Ross knocked down a trio of triples in the surge before DeRozan capped it with back-to-back buckets to make it 44-27 with 5:36 left in the half.

Portland pulled within 12 late in the half, but Ross reeled off the final four points of the frame, including a buzzer-beating trey to send the Raptors into the break holding a comfortable 55-39 advantage.

Toronto maintained a double-digit edge throughout the third and built its lead as high as 19 on a DeRozan jumper before carrying a 78-61 advantage into the fourth.

The lead peaked at 25 in the fourth, as the Raptors cruised to victory over the final 12 minutes.

Game Notes

Portland had won the last eight meetings between the teams ... Toronto guard Jose Calderon recorded 13 assists without scoring a point ... Amir Johnson added 17 points off the bench for Toronto ... Portland shot 44.3 percent (31- for-70) from the field, but shot just 18.2 percent (4-for-22) from long range.