When Stephen Curry erupted for a mammoth 33 points in the second half of Golden State Warriors’ 118-113 win over the Houston Rockets in Game-6 of Western Conference finals last season, he earned praise from all factions in the NBA, rivals or not. LeBron James’ tweet, “Never underestimate the heart of champions”, however, hogged the biggest limelight.
Terence Davis pours in a career-high 31 PTS (12-15 FGM) as the @Raptors tie their franchise-record with 11 straight wins! #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/0PG0zOb5cx
— NBA (@NBA) February 2, 2020
Terence Davis evoked the same feelings in this game as he enjoyed his career-best night on the NBA court with the 31-point efforts and the Toronto Raptors beat the Chicago Bulls 129-102 at Scotiabank Arena. The most important thing is that his efforts came just a few days after he passed over for a spot in the Rising Stars Challenge at All-Star weekend. At a time when the career of an athlete is judged by the number of personal accolades he earns, Davis didn’t let the disappointment bog him down, and instead channelled the frustration into his game.
That said, the 22-year-old shooting guard got all the help he needed from his teammates as Raptors equalled their franchise winning run.
“The guys kept finding me,” said Davis, who shot 85.7% from 3-point range and scored 13 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter. “Fred, he said I had 28, so he gave me the ball again to get 30. I thought was pretty cool.”
Raptors’ leading scorer Pascal Siakam had 17 points, 5 assists, and 9 rebounds, while Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet chipped in with 14 and 12 points respectively for the reigning champions, who had seven players scoring in double digits in this game.
With that win, the Raptors improved their regular-season record to 36-14, but stay second in the Eastern Conference power rankings, six-and-a-half games behind leaders Milwaukee Bucks. Nick Nurse’s team will host Indiana Pacers on Thursday and can, of course, break the franchise winning run.
Bulls superstar Zach LaVine had a rather quiet evening as he could muster only 18 points. This was only the 13th game this season where LaVine failed to touch the 20-point mark.
Bulls remain three-and-a-half games behind the Eastern Conference playoff seeds. They will entertain New Orleans Pelicans on Friday morning (IST).
