Leonard’s Career Night Lifts Toronto To Win Over Jazz

TORONTO, Ontario – The Utah Jazz allowed the Toronto to score 44 points in the third quarter to give the Raptors a 122-116 win. Three players had career-highs in points, two from Toronto, one from Utah.

Jae Crowder led the Jazz with a career-high 30 points on 5-of-7 shooting from downtown, while Derrick Favors had 21 points and 9 rebounds. Donovan Mitchell chipped in 19 points.

The Jazz shot just 29 percent from downtown, including 0-for-7 in the first quarter.

Kawhi Leonard led all scorers with a career-high 45 points, Pascal Siakam added a career-high 28 points and Norman Powell chipped in 14 points off the bench. Former Ute Delon Wright had 8 points and two steals in 18 minutes.

Back-And-Forth First Half

After starting the game with a tie at 4, Toronto went on a 9-1 run to lead 13-5 with 7:27 left in the opening quarter.

Jae Crowder, Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors kept the Jazz in the game with 19 combined points and Toronto had a 26-24 lead after the first quarter. Leonard was already in double figures with 10 points after the first 12 minutes of play.

Kawhi gets out to 10 1st quarter PTS for the @Raptors! #WeTheNorth @NBATV pic.twitter.com/KadUsbZs0K

— NBA (@NBA) January 2, 2019

Thabo Sefolosha nailed a three-pointer and Dante Exum attacked the basket, coming away with a layup giving the Jazz a three point lead early in the second quarter.

Leonard scored five straight for the Raptors to end the quarter but Favors and Mitchell lifted the Jazz to a 53-51 halftime lead.

Both Leonard and Favors had 15 points to lead their teams in the first half.

Hoop + the harm for Spida! 💪#TeamIsEverything pic.twitter.com/dOUbDlYdMr

— NBA TV (@NBATV) January 2, 2019

Leonard Catches Fire In Third

Toronto came out of the locker room on a 9-0 run, with Pascal Siakam hitting two triples and Fred VanVleet nailing the third to give the Raptors a 60-53 lead just 2:05 into the third quarter.

Siakam continued his hot shooting with another with his third three-pointer of the quarter and Leonard and Serge Ibaka adding points to the scoreboard, the Raptors run reached 22-8 to lead 73-61.

Leonard was fantastic in the third quarter, scoring 19 of his 34 points while shooting 7-for-7 from the field. Toronto outscored Utah 44-32 to take a 95-85 lead after the third quarter.

KAWHI THO pic.twitter.com/dwoY4J98Wt

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) January 2, 2019

The Jazz stayed with 9-11 points of the Raptors in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter but couldn’t get closer.

Crowder hit a deep three-pointer with 4 minutes left to put the Jazz within four points, 109-105.

Jae Crowder is HOT! He has 30 (5 3PM) and the Jazz are within 4! 😳#TeamIsEverything pic.twitter.com/x3jDSBDWBu

— NBA TV (@NBATV) January 2, 2019

The Jazz went on a 7-2 run late in the game but couldn’t get a defensive rebound with the Raptors getting three straight offensive boards in the final minute of the game. Utah had to foul when they were trailing by four points.

STOP THIS KAWHI!

HOW!? pic.twitter.com/f9RhxLbdLl

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) January 2, 2019

Up Next

The Jazz fell to 18-20 on the season, they will continue their four-game road trip on Friday when they face the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s the first meeting of the season between the two teams and the first time they have met since Utah traded Alec Burks for Kyle Korver.

Both teams picked up a win at home in the two meetings last season but that was with LeBron James on the Cavaliers roster. Cleveland is 8-29 on the season and have the worst record in the NBA. Tip-off will be at 5:30 p.m. on AT&T SportsNet.