Guard Brandon Roy scored 25 points to lead the red-hot Portland Trail Blazers to a 101-96 home victory over the Toronto Raptors Wednesday night.
Roy rallied Portland on a go-ahead basketball with more than five minutes remaining, lifting the Trail Blazers to their ninth straight win.
Raptors forward Jamario Moon, left, goes to the hoop against Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy Wednesday night in Portland, Ore.
(Don Ryan/Associated Press)
Roy added nine rebounds, while Martell Webster and LaMarcus Aldridge added 15 points apiece.
Point guard Jose Calderon led Toronto with 19 points and nine assists, with forward Chris Bosh pouring in another 18 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
Things looked extremely bleak for Portland (14-12) as recently as Dec. 2, when a loss at San Antonio gave the Blazers nine defeats in 10 contests and dropped them seven games below .500.
But they haven't been beaten since, winning every game to climb into the thick of the race in the so-so Northwest Division, which Denver leads with a modest 14-10 record.
Toronto (15-12), which lost for only the second time in its last seven games, had a seven-point advantage in the fourth quarter evaporate after a 10-0 run by the Trail Blazers.
With the teams tied 87-87, Roy gave Portland its first lead since the second quarter after driving past Toronto's Carlos Delfino for an easy basket. Calderon cut the Blazers' lead to 90-89 with a jumper, but Roy quickly answered with a bucket, which the Raptors could not come back from.
Roy, last season's NBA rookie of the year, has been key to Portland's hot streak. Prior to Wednesday night's game, Roy averaged 23.0 points, 6.3 assists and 4.5 rebounds in his team's four wins last week to earn Western Conference player of the week honours for the second straight time, becoming the first Blazer to do so since Clyde Drexler in 1987-88.
Portland, which is now 11-3 at the Rose Garden this season, saw the return of Aldridge, who missed the team's past five games with a sore right foot, but coach Nate McMillan felt his second-year player was healthy enough to play.
Aldridge repaid his coach with a solid performance. Along with his point production, Aldridge added seven rebounds and three assists.
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