TORONTO – Jonas Valanciunas scored 12 points, while Canadian point guard Cory Joseph added 11 off the bench to lift the Toronto Raptors to a 87-81 victory over a Cleveland Cavaliers team missing LeBron James.
Mo Williams scored 13 points to lead the Cavs, who are still winless in six pre-season games. Matthew Dellavedova and Anderson Varejao added 12 apiece, and Timofey Mozgov grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
It was a quiet night for both Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan scored seven points, while Lowry had just six for Toronto (4-2). They shot a combined 4-for-16 from the field.
Kevin Love played for the first time since injuring his shoulder in last season’s playoffs, and had six points in 13 minutes. The three-time all-star forward had surgery in May after dislocating his shoulder in the opening round against Boston when he got tangled up with Canadian Kelly Olynyk.
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The Cavs rested both James and Richard Jefferson.
With one game to go in the pre-season, Raptors coach Dwane Casey continued to tinker with his lineup, giving Luis Scola his first start since the team signed the Argentine big man in the off-season.
New acquisitions Bismack Biyombo, and the Toronto-born duo Joseph and Anthony Bennett also played significant minutes. Joseph looked solid in shooting 4-for-9 from the field and doling out six assists, while Bennett finished with nine points including a big putback lay-up with just over a minute to play.
A night before the Toronto Blue Jays host the Kansas City Royals in Game 3 of their American League Championship Series, former Jays star Joe Carter sat courtside, and hurled autographed balls into the Air Canada Centre crowd during a timeout. A section of the ACC broke into a spontaneous “Let’s go Blue Jays!” chant.
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The Raptors led 28-24 to end the first quarter, and the Cavs took a 42-41 edge into the dressing room at halftime. Cleveland was up 64-60 with one quarter left to play.
The Raptors play the Washington Wizards on Friday in Montreal to cap their pre-season. They open the regular-season on Oct. 28 at the ACC against the Indiana Pacers, and play five of their first seven games on the road.
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