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TORONTO, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Toronto Raptors cruised to a 100-78 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Monday night's NBA action.
The Raptors returned from a five-game road trip where the team finished on a 2-3 record. During the same period, the team allowed opponents to score 100.6 points per game on 44.3 percent shooting from the field.
In the 22-point victory over Dallas, Toronto held the Mavericks to 36.5 percent from the field, the second lowest opponent field goal percentage of the season. The 78 points allowed proved a season-low, eclipsing the 79 points scored by the Orlando Magic on Dec. 18.
Raptors head coach Dwane Casey was impressed with his team's effort on the defensive end.
"It makes the game a lot easier when you do that, that's how we want to play," said Casey after the game. "I thought we had good rhythm from that tonight, I think that's the key to it, is getting stops. You don't have to run offence; you have to worry about running the floor," he added.
The defense turned up the heat during the second half, especially during the fourth quarter.
After allowing Dallas to score 46 points on 19-for-42 (45.2 percent) shooting from the field in the first half, Toronto's defense held them to 12-for-43 (27.9 percent) in the second half, including 12 points in the fourth quarter.
During the second half, Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki was held to three points on 1-for-7 shooting, compared to a 14-point first half.
Meanwhile, Raptors All-Star DeMar DeRozan led the way with a game-high 25 points in 33 minutes of action.
"Coming back home after a long road trip, being in our comfort zone, playing in front of our fans and having that positive energy really got us going tonight," DeRozan said after the game.
With the win, the Raptors improve to 39-28 on the season and 22-11 at home. Toronto currently sits in fourth place, trailing Washington by 2.5 games and Boston by three games. With 15 games remaining in the season, they will need to pull off a run to ensure home court advantage in the later rounds of the playoffs.
