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Bayless, Raptors take down Cavaliers

Mar 14, 2012 - 7:33 AM Cleveland, OH (Sports Network) - Jerryd Bayless knocked down four three- pointers en route to 20 points to lead Toronto to a 96-88 victory over Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday.

Bayless also handed out seven assists and Andrea Bargnani tallied 19 points to go with eight rebounds. Leandro Barbosa netted 17 points off the bench to halt the Raptors' two-game losing streak.

"Overall, I thought everybody played a solid game," said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. "I liked our focus. I liked our effort We're still a work in progress. There are a lot of things we did good and there are a lot of things we still need to continue to improve on."

Antawn Jamison paced the Cavaliers with 20 points, while Alonzo Gee and Ramon Sessions chipped in 16 points apiece. Kyrie Irving filled the stat sheet with 14 points, seven boards and seven assists as Cleveland saw its three-game winning streak come to an end.

Jamison buried a jumper that gave the Cavs a 39-34 lead with 5:47 left in the second quarter, but Cleveland did not make another from the field until an Irving jumper in the lane with 3.9 ticks until halftime.

Toronto outscored Cleveland 20-5 during the drought as Irving's bucket stalled the surge, sending the Cavs into the locker room facing a 54-46 deficit.

The lead dipped as low as six after Tristan Thompson sank two from the line to make it 69-63 late in the quarter, but Linas Kleiza answered with a three- pointer to help the Raptors to a 75-65 advantage after three quarters of play.

Bayless sank a triple and added two from the line shortly after to give the Raptors a comfortable 88-75 lead at the midway point of the fourth, but Cleveland tallied the next seven, capped by a Gee triple to make it a six- point contest.

Down the stretch, however, the home team was unable to trim the deficit below six, as Bargnani got his own rebound and threw down a dunk with 41.9 seconds left to make it an eight-point game and seal the victory for the Raptors.

"I didn't think we played with the same intensity that we played with the last three games," said Cleveland head coach Byron Scott. "I thought we tried to turn it on, then we got back and then we relaxed. That's just something you can't do. They played pretty well."

Toronto jumped out to an early 10-4 lead but Cleveland fought back with a 13-2 surge to take a 17-12 edge with four minutes left in the first.

The Raptors outscored the Cavs down the stretch to close the gap to one, 22-21, heading into the second stanza.

Game Notes

Both clubs are in action on Wednesday, as the Cavaliers will travel to Milwaukee and the Raptors will continue a stretch of five straight road games Wednesday in New Jersey...Toronto's Jose Calderon missed his second straight game with a sprained right ankle...Both teams scored 40 points in the paint.