NBA Game Summary - New Jersey at Toronto

02.20.2004

Toronto, ON (Basketball News) - Richard Jefferson scored 20 points to lead New Jersey to a 91-72 win over Toronto at Air Canada Centre.

Kerry Kittles finished with 19 points and seven rebounds for the Nets, who posted their franchise-record 12th straight victory and improved to 11-0 under interim head coach Lawrence Frank. Jason Kidd added 11 points and 15 rebounds in the win.

Frank set an NBA record by winning his initial six road games, and New Jersey set a franchise record with the six straight road victories.

Donyell Marshall posted 17 points and 13 rebounds for the Raptors, who suffered their fourth straight loss. Milt Palacio registered 12 points and Morris Peterson contributed 11 points and nine boards in the setback.

New Jersey scored the first seven points and led 13-4 on an alley-oop layup by Jefferson, from Kidd, midway through the first quarter.

The Nets maintained a nine-point edge, 25-16, at the end of the quarter.

In the second quarter, a dunk by Jefferson kept New Jersey ahead by nine at 32-23 midway through the period. The Raptors, though, cut their deficit to 36-33 on two foul shots by Marshall with 5:05 to play in the second.

However, the Nets ended the quarter on a 14-5 surge. Two foul shots by Kidd with 4.4 seconds left put them ahead 50-38 at halftime.

Jefferson led all scorers with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field in the first half, while Kittles added 10 points and five rebounds for New Jersey.

A jumper by Jason Collins 52 seconds into the third quarter put the Nets ahead 52-38. The Raptors fought back as Marshall’s layup with 5:16 to go in the third pulled them within 58-53.

But two foul shots by Williams with 30 seconds remaining in the period put New Jersey ahead 69-59 at the end of the quarter.

The Raptors got no closer than 75-67 with 7:57 to go in the fourth quarter and New Jersey then used a 14-0 run to pull away.

Kenyon Martin, who didn’t start with flu-like symptoms, finished with six points for the Nets...Collins delivered 12 points for New Jersey, which improved to 24-4 when scoring at least 90 points and is 10-3 on Friday’s this year...Chris Bosh scored 10 points for Toronto.

Post your comment:

No profanity or inaproppriate remarks. All i.p. addresses will be saved and abuse/hate posts will be reported to providers and authorities as part of the anti-spam act of 2003, thank you for posting comments on the articles only.