Mar 11, 2025, 12:32 AM ET
TORONTO — A.J. Lawson and his hometown team in Toronto became the rebounding Raptors on a record-setting night.
Lawson made seven 3-pointers while scoring a career-high 32 points, and also had 12 rebounds while being one of four Toronto players with double-doubles in a 119-104 win over Washington on Monday night. The Raptors had never before had a quartet of players with at least 10 rebounds in the same game.
“I’ve probably been dreaming about this, who knows how long, since I first touched a basketball,” said Lawson, who played only his 10th game with Toronto while on a two-way contract. “I’m a Toronto kid. … To have a performance like this, it just means everything.”
The Raptors set a single-game franchise record with 73 rebounds, the most by any team in the NBA this season, and the most by any team in a regulation game since they joined the league 30 years ago.
RJ Barrett, like Lawson a 24-year-old Toronto native, had 14 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Scottie Barnes had 14 points and 13 boards, while Orlando Robinson finished with 13 and 11.
“Man, it’s like a full-circle moment. We’ve been playing together since middle school,” Lawson said of Barrett. “Just being on the court with him as a Raptor, both Canadians, what a blessing.”
The Raptors (22-43) had more than 20 offensive rebounds for the third game in a row, which is a franchise record that may not be as positive as it sounds.
They had 28 offensive boards against Washington, getting plenty of opportunities since they shot 39.5% on 43-of-109 field goals, matching a season high for attempts. They had 33 second-chance points.
In a 118-117 loss to the NBA-worst Wizards on Saturday, Toronto had 35 second-chance points with 22 offensive boards.
“It would not be fair to say that we did anything different today than we do the whole season,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “Yes, we are focusing a lot on offensive rebounding, and we also focusing on offensive rebounding in many games.”
“I don’t think it was just the message tonight,” he said. “Also, we did not shoot the ball necessarily well. We got a big number of shots up, so those were opportunities for us to be more aggressive and then get those.”
