The Toronto Raptors had to rely on a fourth-quarter surge to take down the Atlanta Hawks 106-90 at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday.
Led by stellar play from Toronto's second unit and a game-high 25 points from talisman DeMar DeRozan, the Raptors rode a 14-0 run midway through the final quarter to take down the Hawks for the fourth straight time this season.
Happy Birthday, T.O. #WeTheNorth #BenchMob w/ 47p, 25r, 11a, 9s, 6b pic.twitter.com/G3yzXqQPbQ
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) March 7, 2018
The win is Toronto's fifth in a row and boosts the team to 46-17 on the season. The Raptors are two games up on second-place Boston atop the NBA's Eastern Conference.
Here are three takeaways from Tuesday's contest:
Points on points on points
Toronto has been among the NBA elite in terms of scoring this season, and Tuesday's game was just another example as the team pulled away from a stubborn Hawks squad rather effortlessly for yet another triple-digit outcome.
#Raptors match franchise record by scoring 100+ points in 16 straight games
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) March 7, 2018
The Raptors can set a new team mark for consecutive games with 100 points or more on Wednesday night against Detroit.
First-half blues
Before the late surge, the Raptors found themselves down a point at halftime after an horrendous opening 24 minutes from the field.
Toronto made just 17 of 48 shots in the first half for a dreadful 35.4 percent efficiency. The Hawks hit 47.4 percent of their attempts, which kept them in the game far longer than the Raptors would have liked.
Thru 24. #RTZ pic.twitter.com/61jtRpZE4E
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) March 7, 2018
The Raptors' offensive woes in the first half were embodied by Kyle Lowry, who went scoreless for the first two quarters and only put up four points in total. Lowry was 0-3 in the first 24 minutes, with all three failed attempts coming from 3-point range.
Miles on the mark
As poor as Lowry was from long distance, C.J. Miles picked up the slack.
The Raptors swingman was deadly from beyond the arc, hitting four of his nine attempts.
PAPA MIL3S! pic.twitter.com/vvmsfsmF5d
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) March 7, 2018
Miles' marksmanship was especially beneficial in the fourth quarter, when he knocked down back-to-back threes as the Raptors began to pull away for good.