NUMBERS DON'T LIE - RAPTORS 100, NUGGETS 90 - The "Dunk of the Year" Edition

posted by Romy Aquino

If you didn't watch last night's game, you missed probably one of the best dunks of the year.  Terrence Ross' dunk on Kenneth Faried to end the first half in the Mile High City, was by far the highlight of the night.  Toronto began their first game of a five game west coast road trip in Denver and won their first contest 100-90 over the Denver Nuggets.

Numbers don't lie, check the scoreboard:

1  This is definitely a candidate for Dunk of the Year, no question.

9  The last time Toronto won in Denver, 50 Cent's "In Da Club" was a #1 hit.  Yeah...it was THAT long ago.  It was December 2003 when the Raptors last won in Denver where your Raptors starting five included Vince Carter, Chris Bosh, Alvin Williams, Donyell Marshall and Jalen Rose.

19  Demar DeRozan who was recently named to the 2014 Eastern Conference NBA All-Stars made his return from ankle injury and scored a team high 19 points in 32 minutes.

18  Terrence Ross put up his highest point total since his 51-point game and scored 18 points on an efficient 7-10 shooting with 2 steals and 3 blocks.


26  Denver, who were without two of their primary ballhandlers in Ty Lawson (rotator cuff strain) and Nate Robinson (knee), committed 26 turnovers.  The Raptors were able to score 29 points off of Denver's 26 turnovers.  This was the highest turnover total of a Toronto Raptors opponent this season.

11  Toronto finished off the month of January with 11 wins, tying a franchise record set in 2002.  It'll be interesting to see if Coach Casey will be able to walk away with another Coach of the Month.

3  Coach Casey wasn't too happy about the Raptors fourth quarter play, as the Raptors got a little too comfortable and went on a seven minute stretch where they only scored 3 points.  Toronto watched their lead of 25 points get widdled down to just ten points at the end of regulation.

11/9  John Salmons continues to be a solid veteran presence for the Raptors and had a great game off of the bench with 11 points (3-4 from three), a season high 9 assists and two steals.

9/5  The Raptors are starting to show signs of a deep bench as Tyler Hansbrough was all hustle on Friday and had 9 points, 5 rebounds and a ton of grit and grind that didn't show up on the boxscore.  Definitely good to have him back.

3  Three Raptors players returned from injury on Friday night: DeRozan (ankle), Amir (ankle) and Patterson (broken nose)

5  Toronto continues on their five game West Coast road trip: @POR, @UTA, @SAC and @LAC.

1  One 'Tweet of the Night' from Paul Jones after that Terrence Ross dunk.

As @shermanhamilton would say about the Ross jam...From bakka yaad...lawd mon deh pon some seeeereous disrespect!! lol....#patois #rtz
— Paul Jones (@Paul__Jones) February 1, 2014

Pound The Rock Star of the Game: Terence Ross: 18 points (7-10), 2 steals, 3 blocks and one monstrous dunk on Kenneth Faried.

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