Jazz at Raptors
The Toronto Raptors squandered an opportunity to gain another game on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the fight for first place in the Eastern Conference over the weekend while sitting All-Star Kyle Lowry. The point guard expects to be back in the lineup when the Raptors return home to host the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.
Lowry went for a career-high 43 points and buried the game-winning jumper in a 99-97 win over Cleveland on Friday but was given a day off to rest on Sunday at Detroit, and Toronto went on to suffer a 114-101 loss while the Cavaliers, who own a two-game lead in the East, were in the process of losing at Washington. “Coach kind of decided he wanted to give me rest and I said, ‘Okay, cool,’” Lowry told reporters. “I’m not going to fight certain things. Of course I want to be out there, but it’s long term.” The Jazz don’t have any room to rest players as they fight to stay alive at the bottom of the Western Conference playoff picture. Utah dropped a back-and-forth contest at Boston 100-95 on Monday in the opener of a four-game road trip and has lost three straight and six of eight to fall into ninth place in the West.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, ROOT (Utah), TSN (Toronto)
ABOUT THE JAZZ (28-31): Utah is just 9-19 away from home and will play 10 of its first 14 games in March away from Salt Lake City. The Jazz closed out February by failing to come up with the shots they needed down the stretch at Boston. "It’s kind of the same stuff,” Utah coach Quin Snyder told reporters. “We played really hard. We’ve got to make some shots. To shoot 37 percent and still come down to a single-possession game speaks to how hard we’re playing defensively. ... They made a shot down the stretch and we didn’t. The game can be that simple sometimes."
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (39-19): Toronto had a four-game winning streak come to an end with Sunday’s loss as Cory Joseph scored 10 points while starting in place of Lowry. The biggest difference came on the defensive end, where the Raptors allowed the Pistons to shoot 57.7 percent from the field. “This (Detroit) team is playing well but we didn’t come out with any defensive disposition whatsoever,” Toronto coach Dwane Casey told reporters. “And this league will hand it right back to you. We’re not good enough. We’re not good enough to do it with Kyle or without Kyle when you come out without that defensive focus.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Jazz F Trey Lyles scored 18 points on Monday after totaling 16 in his previous seven games.
2. Toronto waived F Anthony Bennett on Monday and signed F Jason Thompson, who had been waived last week by the Golden State Warriors.
3. Utah snapped a four-game losing streak in the series with a 93-89 home win on Nov. 18.