National Basketball Association
Toronto 92, New York 91
When: 7:00 PM ET, Monday, February 27, 2017
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
Officials: #59 Gary Zielinski, #34 Kevin Cutler, #14 Ed Malloy
Attendance: 19812

NEW YORK -- For DeMar DeRozan, the moment of hitting a game-winning shot might as well resemble a quiet afternoon inside a silent gym during the middle of the summer as opposed to a road arena with the game on the line in the middle of a tight playoff race.

Pressure?

If there was any, DeRozan was oblivious to it Monday night.

Instead, DeRozan just took the ball at one of his favorite spots on the court and sank the game-winning jumper with 1.9 seconds remaining as the Toronto Raptors ended an eventful day with a dramatic 92-91 victory over the New York Knicks.

"That you're in the gym by yourself working on shots, honestly," DeRozan said of what goes through his mind in the final seconds. "You don't worry about the crowd. Everything seemed like it just slowed down, the repetition that you do all summer and during the season over and over you honestly just get stuck in that zone for a couple of seconds."

DeRozan scored 37 points and reached 30 points for the 25th time. He scored 14 points in the final 12 minutes, including the final 12 for Toronto (36-24), which won its fourth straight hours after announcing Kyle Lowry would undergo right wrist surgery Tuesday.

There were nine lead changes and eight ties in the fourth quarter, including the moment with 10.6 seconds remaining when Carmelo Anthony grabbed the offensive rebound of his missed 17-footer with 14.7 seconds left and made a cross-court feed to Courtney Lee for an open 3-pointer four seconds later.

Facing a 91-90 deficit, Toronto called a 20-second timeout to set it up for DeRozan.

DeMarre Carroll inbounded to Cory Joseph, who quickly handed it to DeRozan. DeRozan dribbled several times and then spotted up along the right wing and released a turnaround fadeaway jumper over Derrick Rose that cleanly went through the hoop.

"We set up a play for him to get to his sweet spot," Toronto coach Dwane Casey said. "He did a good job. The key with that was that was Cory Joseph's screen. He set a man screen, a solid screen to get DeMar open and that's what we got to do."

The Knicks called timeout as DeRozan was mobbed by his teammates and the game ended when Anthony's 3-point attempt missed.

"We knew it was going to DeRozan," Lee said. "Derrick played great defense on him. He made a tough fadeaway."

DeRozan gave the Raptors their fourth straight win and each victory occurred after facing a double-digit deficit. Three of those wins occurred after Toronto faced a 17-point deficit and Monday, Toronto faced a 17-point deficit late in the first half before gradually chipping away.

"That wasn't us in the first half, low energy," Casey said. "Feeling sorry for ourselves for whatever reason from the night before. We found a way."

DeRozan shot 13 of 25 and made 10 of 13 free throws on a night when Toronto shot 42 percent and missed its first 10 3-pointers.

"You never want to lose," DeRozan said. "When you get down big like that, you try to pick it up and fight harder. It's a bad thing that we're down that much but it just shows you the fight in us."

Serge Ibaka added 15 points and Jonas Valanciunas contributed 10 as Toronto held the Knicks to 38 points after halftime.

Anthony led the Knicks with 24 points but shot 9 of 26 from the floor. Rose and Lee added 16 points apiece for New York, which was denied consecutive wins for the first time in over two months.

The Knicks (24-36) also were handed their 13th loss by five points or less.

"It's a tough one to lose especially like that," Anthony said. "A couple of plays, a couple of rebounds could have gone our way. There were a couple of things we could have taken advantage of but it came down to that last shot that I missed."

NOTES: Toronto G Kyle Lowry said he is unsure when he initially injured his wrist but said it was a constantly sore before he decided to get it checked out. It is the second wrist injury of Lowry's career. In 2006, he broke his left wrist as a rookie and the rehab lasted approximately four months. Lowry also said he is not planning to stay away from the team during the recovery. "I'm still going to be on the bench," Lowry said. "I'm going to do as much as I can, harping on my guys and trying to get them better." ... G Brandon Jennings was waived by the Knicks Monday in a mutual decision to get him more playing time than the roughly 13 minutes per game in his last three contests. ... Toronto coach Dwane Casey said the team would not sign a veteran point guard off the waiver wire even though Jennings and Jose Calderon are now available. ... Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said C Joakim Noah (right knee surgery) began feeling pain after the team reconvened after the All-Star break. ... Hornacek also said F Kristaps Porzingis (sprained right ankle) is feeling much better and hopes to play Wednesday in Orlando
Top Game Performances
 
Toronto   New York
DeMar DeRozan 37 Scoring Carmelo Anthony 24
Cory Joseph 4 Assists Kyle O'Quinn 4
DeMar DeRozan 8 Rebounds Willy Hernangomez 9
DeMar DeRozan 10 Free Throws Made Derrick Rose 6
DeMar DeRozan 2 Steals Courtney Lee 5
Serge Ibaka 1 Blocks Kyle O'Quinn 3
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Toronto 92 42.3 7-26 19-23 12 41 3 9 12
New York 91 45.2 9-24 16-19 17 40 6 10 18
Upcoming Games
  • New York will play their next game on the road against Orlando. The Knicks have a W/L % of .320 after a win and .457 after a loss.
  • Toronto will play their next game at home against Washington. The Raptors have a W/L % of .629 after a win and .560 after a loss.