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Hot hand Vince Carter outscores Cavs in third quarter
Posted: Wednesday December 08, 1999 01:09 AM
TORONTO (AP) -- After a slow start, Vince Carter took control against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Carter scored 15 of his 32 points in the decisive third quarter as the Toronto Raptors beat the Cavaliers 101-98 Tuesday night. Carter, coming off a career-high 39 points against San Antonio on Sunday, missed 9 of 14 shots in the first half as the Raptors fell behind by 11 points. But he found the range in the third quarter, hitting 6 of 8 shots as the Raptors outscored the Cavaliers 31-13. "I've learned that you'll sometimes have a bad start," said Carter, last year's rookie of the year. "But then I started to hit a few, and it felt good. We stepped up and played some defense as well as some offense." Carter hit a 3-pointer with 2:04 left in the third to give Toronto a 64-63 lead and then added a short turnaround jumper. Following a technical foul on Carter with 39.6 seconds left, Brevin Knight made three straight free throws to cut Toronto's lead to 98-95. But the Raptors held on for their third straight victory. "It's hard to accept a loss when you play two good quarters," Cleveland coach Randy Wittman said. "When [Carter is] making jump shots and going to the basket, he's tough to handle. If you go small on him, he can jump over smaller guys; if you go big on him, he can get big guys off the dribble.'
Dee Brown scored 14 points of his season-high 17 points for Toronto in the first half and was 5-of-10 from 3-point range. "We had to toughen up on defense," said Brown, who had five turnovers in the first half. "We had too many turnovers in the first half, and they got a lot of fast-break points." Muggsy Bogues provided some spark for Toronto in the second half, getting eight assists in only 19 minutes. "Muggsy was inspirational," Raptors coach Butch Carter said. "He made some great decisions and did what a veteran needed to do to get a win." Knight led the Cavaliers with a season-high 20 points and 11 assists. Shawn Kemp, who played only 25 minutes due to foul trouble, had 16 points for Cleveland. Toronto's Antonio Davis got a concussion and needed three stitches after he was accidentally hit above the left eye by Lamond Murray midway through the third quarter. Davis will be re-evaluated in the morning and is day-to-day. Notes: Carter's 39 points on Sunday fell one short of the Raptors' record, set by Acie Earl and Tracy Murray in 1996. ... Carter played a season-high 46 minutes. ... The Cavaliers and Raptors are both shooting 41 percent from 3-point range this season. San Antonio leads the league at 43 percent. ... The Raptors are 6-11 against the Cavs. ... Tracy McGrady will not play in the Raptors-Bucks game on Friday because of a death in the family.
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