Raptors Hand Warriors Second-Worst Loss in Franchise History With 53-Point Blowout
Pascal Siakam scored 36 points in three quarters and the Raptors routed the Warriors 130-77 Friday night, with the largest margin of victory in the NBA this season.
Toronto shot 53.4% in the game and won for just the second time in 15 games. The Raptors pushed their lead to 61 points when Malachi Flynn hit a short jump shot with 6:29 remaining.
Gary Trent Jr., who posted a career-high 31 points Wednesday in his fourth game with the Raptors, finished with 24 points and OG Anunoby added 21.
The 53-point win was the biggest in the NBA this season, two points wider than the final margin of Dallas’s 124-73 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 27. The last time an NBA game was decided by more: Dec. 8, 2018, when Boston beat Chicago 133-57.
And the numbers of note didn’t stop there.
The 61-point lead was the largest in the NBA since Charlotte led Memphis by 65 points on March 22, 2018. The only other game in the last 25 years to see a lead exceed 60 points was Feb. 27, 1998, when Indiana beat Portland by 65 points.
The 53-point margin of victory was the largest in Raptors history, the previous being a 46-point win over Indiana last season. It was the third-biggest loss in Warriors history; they lost by 63 points to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972, then lost a playoff game to the Lakers by 56 points the following season.
Andrew Wiggins led Golden State with 15 points, all in the first half.
It was the seventh loss in eight games for the Warriors, who played without Steph Curry and Draymond Green, a late scratch with a left finger injury.
The Warriors shot 32.9% and had 21 turnovers.
Siakam scored 23 points in the first half, seven during a 20-2 run over a seven-minute span of the second quarter.
Anunoby and Chris Boucher did all the scoring as Toronto opened the second half with a 13-2 spurt to take a 75-42 lead.
Fred VanVleet left the game in the third quarter with a left hip flexor, having played 19 minutes. His 3-pointer midway through the second quarter extended his streak of games with at least one 3-pointer to 76, a Toronto franchise record.