Raptors are who they are: best 3-point team around

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: February 10, 2008 - 11:32 PM

Sixty-seven years after Ted Williams last did it, the Toronto Raptors entered Sunday's game against the Timberwolves on pace to hit .400 -- from beyond the three-point arc, that is -- and so it was with little surprise that the evening seemed to turn on Raptors guard Jose Calderon's two three-point shots that closed out his team's scoring in the first half.

Trailing by 12 points with four minutes gone in the second quarter and still down by 10 with 5 1/2 minutes left in it, the Wolves pulled even with a 14-4 run until Calderon answered a pair of shots that provided the springboard for the Raptors' runaway second half. The second one came with half a second left before the intermission.

"That can give a team momentum," Wolves rookie Corey Brewer said. "Calderon knocking down shots like that is a big momentum-changer for them. They just kept adding to it."

The Raptors turned a 51-47 halftime lead into a 105-82 victory with a lopsided second half that included a 26-14 third-quarter advantage.

"That took a little out of us," Wolves coach Randy Wittman said of Calderon's two threes. "That's who they are: the No. 1 three-point-shooting team in the league."

McCants out

Wolves guard Rashad McCants left the game midway through the second quarter after he, in the words of Wittman, "tweaked" his right ankle. He did not return to the game.

He is listed as day-to-day because of a sprained ankle.

Homecoming

Former Gopher Kris Humphries, traded by Utah after his first two seasons there, is finding his way in his second season with the Raptors. On Sunday, he played eight minutes and scored four points, but he might be most remembered by the Target Center audience for a powerfully missed slam dunk late in the game that bounded far away.

"He has improved from last year, and we still think he has a lot more improvement and growth to do," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said. "I like Kris. He's a good kid. He says some things that are hilarious."

Intentionally? Mitchell paused.

"It turns out to be funny," he said. "Where he gets them, I don't know. Kris is just a good-hearted person, he really is. He doesn't have any malice in his heart, and he works extremely hard. ... He's going to continue to get better."

Etc.

• NBA Commissioner David Stern on Sunday named Detroit's Rasheed Wallace to replace the injured Kevin Garnett in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game in New Orleans.

• Raptors center Rasho Nesterovic, who began his NBA career with Minnesota, warmly embraced Wittman and Wolves executive Rob Babcock, Toronto's former general manager, in a pregame greeting.

• Wolves forward Chris Richard scored nine points and had 11 rebounds Sunday in his fourth game with the team's Sioux Falls NBA Development League affiliate, putting him at 10.8 points and 11.3 rebounds a game. He is expected to play two more games with the Skyforce this week before he rejoins the Wolves after the NBA All-Star Game break.

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