On a night in which his depth perception figured to be slightly askew after taking a nasty poke to the eye, DeMar DeRozan's aim was laser-true Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers, particularly from the free-throw line.
In a nail-biting 117-115 win for his Toronto Raptors, DeRozan was in full-on attack mode, and with a bit of help from a loose whistle, got to the stripe a career-high 25 times. Incredibly, he sunk the first 24.
His 24th and 25th attempts came with under a second left in regulation, and the Raptors leading by a point. When he hit the first, he temporarily nudged past Dominique Wilkins in the NBA record books, establishing a new all-time mark for free-throw makes in a game without a miss. Then he clanked his 25th and final attempt, wiping away his record.
On the plus side, the Blazers had no timeouts left, and time expired as their last-ditch full-court heave fell way short.
DeRozan said after the game that on the advice of All-Star teammate Kyle Lowry, he missed the final free throw on purpose, according to Blake Murphy of Raptors Republic.
The situation may have supported Lowry's strategy - the Blazers had to grab the rebound and chuck in 0.9 seconds, rather than getting to set up some sort of out-of-bounds play - but DeRozan was a little salty when he found out his backcourt mate had cost him a place in history.
"Thanks Kyle," DeRozan said on his way out of the locker room, according to TSN's Josh Lewenberg, "could've had the NBA record."
It was a nutty game all around, with the Raptors as a team establishing new franchise marks for free-throw attempts (54) and makes (43). DeRozan finished with a team-high 38 points, despite hitting just seven field goals and not attempting a single 3-pointer.
The only real reason the Blazers kept things as close as they did is that Damian Lillard turned into a volcano in the fourth quarter, pouring in 22 points to finish with a game-high 50.
The win extended the Raptors' franchise-long home winning streak to 12 games. They play their next five in Toronto.
