TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors gave Chris Bosh an early birthday present: a rousing win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Bosh had 16 points and 13 rebounds, Shawn Marion added 14 points and 13 boards and the Raptors routed the struggling Clippers 100-76 Sunday.
Bosh turns 25 on Tuesday but will celebrate Sunday night with an exclusive bash at Maro, a downtown Toronto nightclub. Heading into the party after a big win made it all the sweeter.
“When we come out and play the way we did it’s fun,” Bosh said. “That’s what I think we have to get to now. We just have to have fun playing the game of basketball and the way you have fun is play defense, lock them down and run. When you’re running, getting dunks and everybody is scoring, everybody is touching the ball, that’s when it’s fun.”
Jose Calderon scored 15 points, including a rare dunk, and Joey Graham added 13 for the Raptors, who have won five of six against the Clippers.
“Any win right now is great, regardless of who we’re playing or what the situation is,” Marion said. “You can see the life in everybody in here. We’ve just got to keep it going.”
So, what will Marion be getting Bosh for his birthday?
“I don’t know,” Marion said. “What do you buy him? He’s got everything already. I’ll wish him a happy birthday, many more to come and maybe buy him a drink or a bottle of something.”
Toronto center Pops Mensah-Bonsu was also looking for the perfect gift.
“Considering our salaries, he should be getting me something,” Mensah-Bonsu joked. “We’ll see. You only turn 25 once, it’s a milestone. I might give him the boxscore from the last game because he shot great from the free throw line.”
The Raptors had lost nine of 10 coming in but had little difficulty handling the Clippers, leading by as many as 28 in a runaway fourth quarter. Toronto collected a season-high 57 rebounds while Los Angeles had only 34.
“I’m disappointed, I thought we got outworked,” Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said. “We shot 38 percent from the field and we got two offensive rebounds. That, to me, says we didn’t battle well enough in the paint.”
Zach Randolph scored 20 points and Baron Davis added 12 for the Clippers, who have won just two of their past 12.
“We couldn’t get out of the hole tonight,” Randolph said. “They hit big shots and we just couldn’t bounce back.”
Randolph shot 10-for-17 while the rest of the Clippers combined to go 19-for-58. Davis shot 3-for-15, rookie guard Eric Gordon was 3-for-10 and Marcus Camby finished 2-for-6.
“Other than Zach Randolph, our starters couldn’t really make shots,” Dunleavy said.
The Clippers have not won on the road since a 121-97 victory at Atlanta on Feb. 7. Los Angeles is 7-27 overall on the road and has lost eight straight away from home.
Toronto was without starting center Andrea Bargnani (sore left heel), and the Clippers were missing forward Al Thornton (sore right shoulder). Jake Voskuhl started for Bargnani while former Raptor Fred Jones replaced Thornton.
The top pick in the 2006 draft, Bargnani had played 130 consecutive games for Toronto since his last absence Dec. 9, 2007, against Houston.
Randolph had 10 in the first but no other Clipper had more than three, while Toronto got eight points from Bosh and seven from Calderon to lead 33-20 after one.
After shooting 14-for-22 in the first, Toronto slumped to 8-for-30 in the second but still held a 54-50 edge at the half.
Clippers guard Mardy Collins, who had missed the past five games with a sore right foot, scored six points in 13 minutes.
Notes: Besides its regular English-language broadcast, the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation also aired the game in Punjabi, a language of Northern India and Pakistan. … Voskuhl made his first start of the season. … Randolph scored the Clippers’ first eight points. … Toronto’s 100 field goal attempts were the most in a regulation game since they took 103 against Sacramento on Feb 23, 2001.
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