Football
20y

Crawford: 'I just had it going'

TORONTO (AP) -- Jamal Crawford predicted he could score 50 points
before the Chicago Bulls played the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.

He turned out to be right. Crawford had a career-high 50 points
to lift the Bulls past the Raptors 114-108 in overtime. Not since
Michael Jordan had 55 in a playoff game in 1997 has a Chicago Bull
scored this many points.

Crawford said he told a sportswriter before the game that he
could score 50 if he put two halves together.

"My teammates did a great job of finding me," Crawford said.
"You have to be aggressive, but you also have to be smart. You
don't want to take bad shots and alienate your teammates."

Crawford became the fourth person to score at least 50 points
this season, joining Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson and Rashard
Lewis. McGrady did it twice with 51 points against Denver in
November and 62 on March 10 against Washington -- the highest total
this season.

Lewis had 50 against the Los Angeles Clippers in October, and
Iverson had 50 against Atlanta in November.

Crawford had 24 points in the fourth quarter, including 16
straight as Chicago rallied to take the lead. His previous best was
42 points Dec. 27 against Washington.

Crawford went 18-for-34 from the field, and 8-for-11 from the
line. He also had seven rebounds.

"Today, I just had it going," Crawford said.

A day after questioning former teammate Vince Carter's work
ethic, Antonio Davis pushed Carter with his forearm in the third
quarter. Carter responded by throwing the ball off Davis' back.

Both received technical fouls.

"Antonio Davis is not anybody I worry about, believe me,"
Carter said. "He's the last person I would ask for an opinion.
Everybody is welcome to say what they want to say. He means
nothing, what he says. If he thought that was going to hurt me,
hurt my feelings, hurt my game, nah."

On Saturday, Davis said he didn't know whether Carter was
"willing to make sacrifices to bring everything out of himself."

Carter said an official told him about Davis' comments before
the game. Davis laughed after Carter threw the ball at him.

"If that's the best that he can do, that's fine with me,"
Carter said.

Davis said he didn't say anything that hasn't been said
previously.

"I just know that there's more that he can do to continue to
get better," Davis said. "I know he's not a strong believer in
weights and other things like that, but you have to prepare your
body.

"He loves driving the basketball, but he's going to hit. He has
to just lift so that when he gets hit he can get up and keep
going."

Carter blocked Davis' potential game-winning dunk in the final
seconds of regulation, but fouled out in the first minute of
overtime.

Carter finished with 30 points for the lottery-bound Raptors,
who went 0-4 against Chicago this season.

Crawford's jumper and Kirk Hinrich's 3-pointer gave Chicago a
108-101 lead with 2:49 left in the extra period.

Jalen Rose's short jumper cut the lead to three, but Crawford
scored his 50th point on a 15-foot jumper with 1:03 left. Jalen
Rose, Morris Peterson, Michael Curry and Carter took turns guarding
Crawford.

Davis, traded to Chicago on Dec. 1, had 17 points, while Eddy
Curry had 25 points and 12 rebounds.

Game notes
Jordan had 55 on April 27, 1997, at Washington. ... Asked whether he wanted to coach the Raptors next year, Kevin O'Neill said, "I'm just going to try and make it to the end of this year and then re-evaluate where I'm at. I'd love to be an NBA head coach next year. If it's here, that's great, if it's somewhere else that's great, but I don't think I'm going to have any control over that." The Raptors fired general manager Glen Grunwald on April 1
and a new general manager is expected to decide whether O'Neill returns. ... Toronto guard Roger Mason fouled out despite playing just nine minutes.

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