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Raptors rout Wizards

Jan 4, 2014 - 7:37 AM Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - DeMar DeRozan scored 20 points, Kyle Lowry had 19 points and 11 assists and the Toronto Raptors pushed their season-high winning streak to five games Friday with a 101-88 win over the Washington Wizards.

Patrick Patterson added 18 points and Amir Johnson scored 17 for the Raptors, who got their third straight win over the Wizards, but only their second in their last seven trips to Washington.

They are 9-2 with a new-look roster after trading Rudy Gay and 7-1 in their last eight road games.

"Winning is contagious, and we're making winning plays. It's not about making extra passes," Lowry said. "It's about winning and how you win is by making extra passes, so everyone is making extra passes, so everybody wants to win. It's not the fancy passes."

The recent hot streaks have the Atlantic Division-leading Raptors (16-15) above .500 for the first time since they were 2-1 going into a Nov. 5 game against Miami.

Toronto coach Dwane Casey urged his team not to look past the Wizards to games against conference powerhouses Miami and Indiana.

"We have no right to look past anybody in this league," said Casey. "That's the message I told the guys. This team is just as talented as we are. ... Our guys approached it that way, came in and took care of business."

Nene scored 15 points off the bench to lead the Wizards, who have lost two straight. Bradley Beal and Martell Webster scored 12 apiece in the loss and John Wall had 11 points.

I hope it's a smack in the face. I hope it's 20 degrees below zero and they get smacked in the face outside with that, too. Maybe that'll wake them up, too. I'll figure something out. We're going to get it one way or another," said Wizards coach Randy Wittman.

Wizards forward Trevor Ariza was ejected with 6:08 remaining in the third quarter after receiving consecutive technical fouls for making comments to referees.

The Raptors opened the third quarter with a 15-4 run, stretching a three-point halftime lead to 14. Ross keyed the run with a right-corner 3 and Jonas Valanciunas and DeRozan followed with a tip-in and jumper to make it 63-49.

After Ariza was ejected, Ross hit another 3 from the right corner to push Toronto's lead to 70-53. It reached 20 moments later on Lowry's 3, capping an overall run of 25-8.

The Raptors were 6-for-8 on 3-pointers in the quarter and 11-for-22 in the game. They led 84-61 going into the fourth quarter and by as many as 26 later on.

Toronto opened the game on a 14-5 run bookended by 3-pointers from Lowry and shot better than 61 percent in the first quarter on the way to a 26-17 lead.

Lowry made all three of his 3-point attempts in the half, including one in the final minute to give Toronto a 48-45 lead at the break after Washington had rallied from 10 points down to tie it.

Game Notes

Ross had 14 points ... Toronto won the last five games of the 2012-13 season ... The Raptors opened a three-game road trip that continues Sunday in Miami ... The Wizards will wrap up a three-game homestand Sunday against Golden State.