Jay Triano finally has his first victory as the Toronto Raptors' head coach.
Jason Kapono scored a season-high 25 points to lift the Raptors to a 101-88 win over the Indiana Pacers last night, marking Triano's first victory as head coach and ending the team's season-long losing streak at five games. Chris Bosh added 21 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto (9-12), while Jamario Moon had 17 points, Jose Calderon had 11 points and 14 assists, and Joey Graham added 12 points.
Jermaine O'Neal finished with 10 points and nine rebounds in the first game between the two teams since the off-season trade that brought the six-time all-star to Toronto for T.J. Ford and Rasho Nesterovic.
Danny Granger had 22 points to top the Pacers (7-14), who suffered their sixth consecutive loss.
Toronto and Indiana paced each other through a pedestrian first half yesterday before the Raptors, who were coming off a 114-94 loss at Cleveland the previous night, finally found some energy in the third quarter. Toronto led 77-65 heading into the fourth.
The Pacers all but disappeared in the fourth as the Raptors stretched their advantage to 18 points midway through the quarter.
Indiana would come within 11, but some big baskets down the stretch, including an alley-oop dunk by Moon with a minute to go in the game, guaranteed a Raptors win, the first for Triano after the Raptors lost the first three with the Niagara Falls, Ont., native at the helm.
The Raptors promoted Triano to interim head coach a week ago to replace Sam Mitchell, making the Niagara Falls, Ont., native the first Canadian-born coach in the NBA.
Triano led the Raptors to a win over New Jersey last season with Mitchell away on a family matter, but the game officially went on Mitchell's record.
Kapono started in place of Anthony Parker, who was sidelined with a sprained left ankle, marking the end of a playing streak that stretched 103 consecutive games. Triano also started Moon over Andrea Bargnani to shake up the lineup.
Toronto sent Ford, Nesterovic, Maceo Baston and draft pick Roy Hibbert to Indiana in the off-season in exchange for O'Neal and second-round pick Nathan Jawai. The move was made both to bring in some help for Bosh and fix what had turned into a tense situation with Calderon and Ford having to split minutes.
Ford, who got a mixed reception of cheers and boos when the starters were introduced, has been averaging a career-high 14.3 points with 5.3 assists and 4.6 rebounds, but didn't have a strong game last night. He finished with just four points and four assists.
