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DeRozan's career-high 42 lift Raptors over Rockets

John E. Sokolowski / USA TODAY Sports

It took more than five weeks, but the Toronto Raptors have finally beaten a winning team.

Thirty-eight days after a statement victory over the East-leading Atlanta Hawks, the reeling Raptors put together one of their finest home performances of the season on Monday to edge the Houston Rockets, 99-96.

DeMar DeRozan stole the show with a career-high 42 points, including a clutch jumper over James Harden that proved the final dagger, giving Toronto a three-point lead with 18 seconds remaining.

DeRozan added 11 rebounds and got to the free throw line 17 times to complement his 14-of-27 (51.8 percent) shooting night, as the Raptors pulled out a thrilling contest that saw 13 lead changes and 10 ties.

Harden poured in 31 points, five assists and five rebounds to lead a banged up Rockets squad, but the Raptors kept him in check - relatively speaking - limiting to a 9-of-22 shooting performance.

Amir Johnson matched a season-high with 16 rebounds for Toronto, while starting frontcourt mate Jonas Valanciunas chipped in with 15 points, nine rebounds and five blocks.

With the victory, the fourth-place Raptors moved within a game of third-place Chicago in the Eastern Conference standings, while moving three games clear of the fifth-place Washington Wizards in the battle for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The Rockets, meanwhile, fell a half-game behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the Southwest Division lead after pulling in front of Memphis just a day earlier.

Houston was without Dwight Howard (rest), Terrence Jones (lung), Donatas Motiejunas (back) and Kostas Papanikolaou (ankle) on a day they ruled starting point guard Patrick Beverley (wrist) out for the season.

All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry missed a third consecutive game for Toronto due to back spasms.

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