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Tuesday, Mar. 28 7:30pm ET
Oakley makes shot from baseline corner | |||||
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 GAME FLOW
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Charles Oakley was as surprised as anybody to have the ball in his hands 24 feet from the basket with the game on the line. "I really can't describe it," Oakley said after making a shot from the baseline corner as time expired to give the Toronto Raptors an improbable 99-96 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night. "I just took the shot," Oakley said. "I'm just glad I got it to hit the rim." Toronto trailed by 17 points midway through the final quarter, then sank six of seven shots from 3-point range during a 33-13 run and snapped a four-game losing streak. Dee Brown hit consecutive 3-pointers to give the Raptors a 96-94 lead with 1:15 remaining. Oakley then blocked shots by Wesley Person and Lamond Murray on consecutive Cavs possessions. Cleveland finally tied it on a driving scoop shot by Bob Sura with 20.5 seconds to play. Toronto got the ball to Vince Carter, who led the Raptors with 19 points. Carter was well-guarded on the left wing and passed to Oakley, whose shot rattled around the rim and dropped through as the buzzer sounded. It was just the 12th 3-pointer for the veteran power forward in 29 attempts. "It was destined to go in," Cavs coach Randy Wittman said. "We played it perfectly. Shawn (Kemp) stepped out on Carter and forced him to throw it to Oakley." Carter shot just 6-for-17 from the field, mostly from the perimeter and had just one of his crowd-pleasing dunks. That came with 4:52 to play and pulled Toronto within 90-88. "I'm not coming out to impress the fans," Carter said. "I'm here to win and tonight I made the pass. That felt as good as making the shot to me." Murray led Cleveland with 30 points, but was limited to two in the final quarter. Shawn Kemp had 20 points and nine rebounds for Cleveland. Murray sat out the first 4:46 of the quarter. By the time he returned, Cleveland's lead was only 87-78. Wittman said he took Murray out because, "He got tired and we wanted to give him a quick blow and have him ready for the stretch drive." Said Murray: "Nah, I wasn't tired at all, but I went to the bench. When I came back, it was a different game. They were hitting shots and feeding off that on defense." Murray scored 20 points in the first half, including a 3-pointer that banked in off the glass with one second left to give Cleveland a 51-40 lead. Carter missed his first five shots before hitting a 15-foot jumper with 31.9 seconds to play in the first quarter.
Game notes | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Toronto Clubhouse Cleveland Clubhouse RECAPS Atlanta 116 Denver 111
Toronto 99 AUDIO/VIDEO   Oakley sees this as a maturing process for the team.wav: 93 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6   | |||||