But though the scoring was there for the Wolves, the defense was not, and the Raptors turned 66 second-half points into a 118-110 victory. The Raptors have beaten the Wolves in 10 consecutive games since they lost to Minnesota 108-97 on Jan. 21, 2004, in Toronto.
“They were on fire early,” Raptors coach Jay Triano said. “We had to call a timeout to see if we could cool them down a little bit.”
The Raptors opened the third with a 13-4 spurt, going ahead on a three-point play by Parker. Minnesota called timeout at 8:54 after Bargnani’s dunk, then came out of the break with an 11-2 run over the next two minutes. Gomes had 11 in the quarter, one more than Bosh, but Toronto took an 84-82 lead into the fourth…
Minnesota guard Bobby Brown, acquired from Sacramento in a deadline day trade last Thursday, made his Timberwolves debut in the second and finished with two points in five minutes. Forward Shelden Williams, who came over from Sacramento in the same trade, has yet to play in the three games since.