(REUTERS, AFP) - Fred VanVleet scored a career-high 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting, as the Toronto Raptors steamrolled the Cleveland Cavaliers 133-99 on Thursday in Toronto in the National Basketball Association (NBA) league.
C.J. Miles made four three-pointers while scoring 16 points and Jonas Valanciunas contributed 15 points and a season-high 18 rebounds for the Raptors. Pascal Siakam also scored 16 points, Norman Powell tallied 14 and DeMar DeRozan added 13 points and eight assists as Toronto won for the sixth time in the past seven games.
LeBron James had 26 points for the Cavaliers, who were routed for the second straight contest while losing for the sixth time in the past eight games. Cleveland trailed by as many as 41 points on Monday in a 127-99 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The margins of defeat - 28 and 34 - represent the Cavaliers' two worst of the season.
"I don't know where it kind of went wrong or what happened," a frustrated James said. "We've got to try to pick it back up and find it."
Cleveland's Isaiah Thomas tallied just four points on 2-of-15 shooting. He missed all six of his three-point attempts after having made at least one in his last 60 regular-season games in what was the second-longest active streak in the NBA behind Golden State's Klay Thompson (95).
The Raptors posted a dominating 63-35 rebounding edge and limited the Cavaliers to 38.2 per cent from the field. Jakob Poeltl had 12 rebounds and also scored 12 points for the home team.
Toronto played without point guard Kyle Lowry (back) for the second straight game. Forward Serge Ibaka also missed the contest after drawing a one-game suspension for exchanging punches with Miami Heat forward James Johnson on Tuesday.
VanVleet received extended playing time with Lowry sidelined, making a career-best six three-pointers (in eight attempts) and not committing a turnover in 24 minutes.
One of our advantages is our youth and our speed and our fresh legs. We've got to take advantage of that," he said.
The Raptors led 30-24 after the first quarter and began pulling away in the second. VanVleet scored five straight points during a 14-2 burst that gave Toronto a 55-34 edge and O.G. Anunoby drained a jumper to push the margin to 25 with 2:35 left en route to a 65-40 halftime advantage.
Anunoby and VanVleet drained back-to-back three-pointers to make it 93-63 with 1:24 left in the third quarter. DeRozan nailed two three-pointers in the final minute as the Raptors took a 100-72 lead into the final stanza.
Lorenzo Brown's ferocious dunk gave Toronto a 113-78 lead with 7:59 to go, and the Raptors finished off their highest scoring game of the season.
