Jermaine O'Neal grabbed the game ball when the final buzzer sounded, marching off the court with an obvious sense of purpose. But the ball wasn't a memento of a victory over his former team, it was a gift for Jay Triano.
A well-deserved game for coach, O'Neal said afterward.
Triano finally earned his first victory as the Toronto Raptors head coach - and thus, the first victory by a Canadian head coach in the NBA - with a 101-88 win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.
He's in a tough situation where he's trying to change some things that we were doing, and he didn't have very much practice time, but he kept at it, he's been extremely positive with the team and it was well-deserved, O'Neal said.
Jason Kapono scored a season-high 25 points, as the Raptors (9-12) also halted their season-long losing streak at five games. Chris Bosh added 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Jamario Moon had 17 points, Jose Calderon had 11 points and 14 assists, and Joey Graham added 12 points.
O'Neal finished with 10 points and nine rebounds in the first game between the two teams since the off-season trade that brought the six-time all-star to Toronto for T.J. Ford and Rasho Nesterovic.
The Raptors promoted Triano to interim head coach a week ago to replace Sam Mitchell, making the Niagara Falls, Ont., native the first Canadian-born coach in the NBA. The 50-year-old led the Raptors to a win over New Jersey last season with Mitchell away on a family matter, but the game officially went on Mitchell's record.
Afterward, Triano said he was simply pleased for his players.
"They have tried to adjust and make changes to what they have been doing and I think we are slowly getting there,'' the coach said.
Danny Granger had 22 points to top the Pacers (7-14), who suffered their sixth consecutive loss.
Toronto and Indiana paced each other through a pedestrian first half Wednesday, before the Raptors, who were coming off a 114-94 loss at Cleveland the previous night, finally found some energy in the third quarter, sparked by a nine-point performance by Moon. Toronto led 77-65 heading into the fourth.
The Pacers all but disappeared in the final 12 minutes as the Raptors stretched their advantage to 18 points midway through the quarter on a running jump shot by Bosh. Indiana would come within 11, but some big baskets down the stretch, including an alley-oop dunk by Moon with a minute to go in the game, guaranteed a Raptors win, Triano's first after the team lost his first three at the helm.
"Coach has done a great job, obviously he's thrown into the fire, it's a tough spot to be in, but everyone's got to bond together, and trust and continue to work on the things he wants us to do,'' Kapono said. "He's got a good head on his shoulders, he understands the game, it's a matter of us doing what he asks us to do.''
Kapono started in place of Anthony Parker, who was sidelined with a sprained left ankle, marking the end of a playing streak that stretched 103 consecutive games.
"As a starter you can get in a rhythm and a flow quicker,'' Kapono said. "You know you're going to play more minutes. You don't have to worry if you start off slow or miss a couple of shots.''
Triano also started Moon over Andrea Bargnani to shake up the lineup.
Toronto sent Ford, Nesterovic, Maceo Baston and draft pick Roy Hibbert to Indiana in the off-season in exchange for O'Neal and second-round pick Nathan Jawai. The move was made both to bring in some help for Bosh and fix what had turned into a tense situation with Calderon and Ford unhappily having to split minutes.
"My problem here was not with Jose or any of my teammates,'' Ford told reporters after the morning shootaround. "It was just a matter of minutes. Could they have done things differently to try to make it work out? We all can look at the drawing board and go back and probably say, yeah, they could have done this, they could have done that, but they didn't. Now both parties move forward and try to do the best for our teams.''
O'Neal scoffed at the notion that the victory was a statement over his former team.
"`There's no statement, the statement has to be made on a consistent basis every single night,'' O'Neal said. "If we can put together some wins, we can revisit that conversation at the end of the year, but right now one win isn't enough.''
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"World's Greatest"-Indiana Pacers Mixby 21BSanders4,257 views
wow no dislikes for this video amazing!!!
FirefightAddiction 6 months ago
@epik89 whatever account you think is chocobo killa on hhboard is not him
WhatEvAccountIsNotMe 1 year ago
we need another big man off the bench. hopefully BC can make something happen without trading.
duckman32001 3 years ago
YAAAAY
WE WIN!!!
WATCHOUT NJNS JK IS BACK (kapono)
solomon709 3 years ago
hell yeah the losing streak is gone!
davenrai 3 years ago
YESSSSSSSS
epik89 3 years ago
woooooohooooooooo jamario, kapano, bosh are balllllllllllllinnnnnnn!!!!
thug4lifetc 3 years ago
OH CANADA!!! first Win for a Canadian Head Coach! o yeah!!
bugleboy6 3 years ago