with 1:09 remaining that all but put Wake Forest away, as the Car

WASHINGTON - Fresh off his first All-Star Game appearance, DeMar DeRozan - heading into uncharted waters as the Raptors ready for a rare playoff push - addressed his teammates following Tuesday morning shoot around. "Each and every single game matters from here on out, especially if we want to do something special," he told them, as the third-seeded Raptors prepared to begin the unofficial second half of their season against the sixth place Washington Wizards. "We cant take [any] nights off," he stressed. "These 30 games are going to be big and weve got to start tonight." Message received, at least in the first of those final 30 games. It took just over four minutes for all five Raptors starters to get on the board. In the end, six players scored in double figures and the teams bench totaled 43 points on an impressive 18-for-26 shooting, as Toronto came away with a 103-93 win, its third in three games against the Wizards this season. "Thats whats great about our team, everybody understands their role and thats real big," said DeRozan, who had a quiet night by his recent standards, scoring 14 points. "We have anybody that can [step up], it can be anybody. If one guys not playing well, somebody else always picks it up." DeRozans uplifting words were not a surprise to Dwane Casey. The Raptors leading scorer had told his coach that he intended to make the speech on the flight to Washington the day prior. "[I] sat with him and talked about the second half of the season, what to expect, and he said he was going to do that," Casey said. "We talked [Monday] night as a team, talked about the next 30 games, what to expect as a team. Now weve got to follow it up with action. Every team coming out is going to be gunning for him - hes achieved All-Star status - and us as a team, were in the playoff hunt. So weve got to meet those expectations." As a team, the Raptors were expectedly rusty early on, specifically on defence. Washington scored 27 first-quarter points, shooting 57 per cent in the frame, while Wizards All-Star John Wall had 11, matching his game total from the Raptors last visit to Verizon Center, Torontos 101-88 win to begin the month of January. "Its always tough to find a rhythm when youre coming off the All-Star break," said Kyle Lowry, who vacationed in an undisclosed location this past weekend after being passed up for the All-Star Game. "Its always tough but we figured it out in the second half and third quarter, for me especially to get going a little bit." In a matchup between two of the best point guards in the Eastern Conference - arguably the two best - Lowry connected on just two of his eight first-half attempts, scoring six points as Wall exploded for 19, making nine of 12 shots. The Raptors lead guard came out of intermission looking like a man on a mission, scoring 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the third, draining long jumpers, getting into the paint at will and knocking down a series of tricky step backs. Lowry finished with a double-double, leading his team with 24 points and 10 assists and Wall was held to three points, without a single field goal, in the second half. "I was trying to attack a little bit more," Lowry, the scorned should-be-All-Star, said of his third-quarter clinic. "That first game out of the break is always tough and I didnt want to let that be an excuse for us to lose this game." "He took the game over in the third quarter and willed us to a win," Casey said of his point guard. "Just his aggressiveness. He attacked their feet, didnt settle for the three, got into the paint and kept attacking." The Raptors recorded 25 assists, 17 from their point guards - Lowry and Greivis Vasquez - and shot 57 per cent on the night, holding Washington, one of the better three-point shooting teams, to 4-of-15 from beyond the arch. Although it looked like it was going to be smooth sailing for Toronto in the third quarter, leading by as much as 20, things got interesting down the stretch when Washington turned up its defensive intensity and the Raptors quickly went ice cold. Toronto was held without a field goal in the final 7:35 of the game, as the Wizards cut their deficit to six down but were unable to get any closer. "We just turned the ball over way too many times against their pressure," Casey said after this team committed eight of their 15 miscues in the final frame. "Thats just from rust and time off, timing, speed of the game." The rest seemed to do wonders for the Raptors, winners of their last three games, specifically Amir Johnson, who has had over 10 days off after missing two contests with a sore right ankle. The Raptors forward made his return off the bench, scoring 14 points and grabbing five rebounds in a spirited 25 minutes of action. Patrick Patterson made his third straight start - scoring 10 points in 34 minutes - and should stick with the first unit for the time being as Johnson works his way back to full health, though Casey wouldnt commit to the lineup change. The Raptors will go for the four-game sweep of Washington when the Wizards visit Toronto next week. They are now four games ahead of the Wizards and a game and a half in front of the fourth-place Chicago Bulls, Torontos Wednesday opponent at the Air Canada Centre. "Thats a tough team," Lowry said of the Bulls, who will be well rested having arrived in Toronto Tuesday, getting the night off. "A different type of game tomorrow night. 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Jones added a career-high 10 assists and keyed an 12-2 run that turned a one- point deficit with under five minutes to play into an 80-71 Cardinals lead in Louisvilles debut in its new conference. Montrezl Harrell also came up big for Louisville (13-1, 1-0 ACC), amassing 25 points and 13 rebounds. Terry Rozier chipped in 18 points for the Cardinals before fouling out late. Chris Jones was brilliant. Montrezl was great in the first half, said Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. Terry, Chris and Montrezl played a great game, and that trifecta led us to victory. First-year head coach Danny Mannings Demon Deacons nearly pulled off the stunning upset, getting a career-best 31 points from Devin Thomas and overcoming a 13-point first-half deficit to briefly move in front. Its refreshing to know we can go toe-to-toe with any team, said Wake Forest guard Codi Miller-McIntyre. We just have to get better. Thomas also had 11 rebounds while shooting 11-of-14 from the field for Wake Forest (8-7, 0-2), which entered Sundays matchup on a season-high three-game win streak. Miller-McIntyre and Mitchell Wilbekin tallied 14 points each in the loss. Louisville appeared en route to an easy win after building a 46-35 halftime lead on the strength of 20 points from Harrell, but the Demon Deacons embarked on a 10-0 run out of the break to quickly pull within one. Miller-McIntyres layup off a Cardinals turnover with 12:55 to play sent Wake Forest ahead for the first time since the games early stages, with the bucket giving the Deacons a 55-54 edge.dddddddddddd. The Cardinals countered with a 6-0 push to temporarily take back control, though four straight points from Thomas later on made it a one-point game again at 64-63. Wilbekin buried a 3-pointer with 6:12 remaining and Dinos Mitoglou scored in transition on Wakes next possession, putting Louisville down by a 69-68 count entering the stretch run. Jones then took over, canning a go-ahead jumper with 4:52 left and hitting two free throws on Louisvilles next trip to ignite the pivotal flurry. He later fed Harrell for an alley-oop layup and knocked down a contested shot with 1:09 remaining that all but put Wake Forest away, as the Cardinals held a 78-71 lead entering the final minute. Louisville created some distance during the first half by going on a 19-4 tear in which Harrell deposited 12 points, with the surge staking the Cardinals to a 29-16 lead just over 11 minutes in. My teammates kept finding me and I kept playing aggressive, Harrell said. I tried to make sure I capitalized every time my teammates found me. A 10-4 run near the end of the period had Louisville back up by 13 before Wakes Cornelius Hudson hit a layup to cut the margin to 46-35 at the break. Game Notes Wake Forest shot 52.8 percent from the field but hit just 3-of-15 attempts from 3-point range ... Louisville went 7-of-17 from beyond the arc ... The schools were meeting for the first time since the Midwest Region semifinal of the 1996 NCAA Tournament, a 60-59 Demon Deacons victory in Minneapolis ... Thomas previous career high was 25 points, set in Wake Forests season opener against UNC Asheville ... The Cardinals will host their first ACC home game this Wednesday against Clemson. ' ' '