WASHINGTON - Fresh off his first All-Star Game appearance, DeMar DeRozan - heading into uncharted waters as the Raptors ready for a rare playoff push - addressed his teammates following Tuesday morning shoot around. "Each and every single game matters from here on out, especially if we want to do something special," he told them, as the third-seeded Raptors prepared to begin the unofficial second half of their season against the sixth place Washington Wizards. "We cant take [any] nights off," he stressed. "These 30 games are going to be big and weve got to start tonight." Message received, at least in the first of those final 30 games. It took just over four minutes for all five Raptors starters to get on the board. In the end, six players scored in double figures and the teams bench totaled 43 points on an impressive 18-for-26 shooting, as Toronto came away with a 103-93 win, its third in three games against the Wizards this season. "Thats whats great about our team, everybody understands their role and thats real big," said DeRozan, who had a quiet night by his recent standards, scoring 14 points. "We have anybody that can [step up], it can be anybody. If one guys not playing well, somebody else always picks it up." DeRozans uplifting words were not a surprise to Dwane Casey. The Raptors leading scorer had told his coach that he intended to make the speech on the flight to Washington the day prior. "[I] sat with him and talked about the second half of the season, what to expect, and he said he was going to do that," Casey said. "We talked [Monday] night as a team, talked about the next 30 games, what to expect as a team. Now weve got to follow it up with action. Every team coming out is going to be gunning for him - hes achieved All-Star status - and us as a team, were in the playoff hunt. So weve got to meet those expectations." As a team, the Raptors were expectedly rusty early on, specifically on defence. Washington scored 27 first-quarter points, shooting 57 per cent in the frame, while Wizards All-Star John Wall had 11, matching his game total from the Raptors last visit to Verizon Center, Torontos 101-88 win to begin the month of January. "Its always tough to find a rhythm when youre coming off the All-Star break," said Kyle Lowry, who vacationed in an undisclosed location this past weekend after being passed up for the All-Star Game. "Its always tough but we figured it out in the second half and third quarter, for me especially to get going a little bit." In a matchup between two of the best point guards in the Eastern Conference - arguably the two best - Lowry connected on just two of his eight first-half attempts, scoring six points as Wall exploded for 19, making nine of 12 shots. The Raptors lead guard came out of intermission looking like a man on a mission, scoring 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the third, draining long jumpers, getting into the paint at will and knocking down a series of tricky step backs. Lowry finished with a double-double, leading his team with 24 points and 10 assists and Wall was held to three points, without a single field goal, in the second half. "I was trying to attack a little bit more," Lowry, the scorned should-be-All-Star, said of his third-quarter clinic. "That first game out of the break is always tough and I didnt want to let that be an excuse for us to lose this game." "He took the game over in the third quarter and willed us to a win," Casey said of his point guard. "Just his aggressiveness. He attacked their feet, didnt settle for the three, got into the paint and kept attacking." The Raptors recorded 25 assists, 17 from their point guards - Lowry and Greivis Vasquez - and shot 57 per cent on the night, holding Washington, one of the better three-point shooting teams, to 4-of-15 from beyond the arch. Although it looked like it was going to be smooth sailing for Toronto in the third quarter, leading by as much as 20, things got interesting down the stretch when Washington turned up its defensive intensity and the Raptors quickly went ice cold. Toronto was held without a field goal in the final 7:35 of the game, as the Wizards cut their deficit to six down but were unable to get any closer. "We just turned the ball over way too many times against their pressure," Casey said after this team committed eight of their 15 miscues in the final frame. "Thats just from rust and time off, timing, speed of the game." The rest seemed to do wonders for the Raptors, winners of their last three games, specifically Amir Johnson, who has had over 10 days off after missing two contests with a sore right ankle. The Raptors forward made his return off the bench, scoring 14 points and grabbing five rebounds in a spirited 25 minutes of action. Patrick Patterson made his third straight start - scoring 10 points in 34 minutes - and should stick with the first unit for the time being as Johnson works his way back to full health, though Casey wouldnt commit to the lineup change. The Raptors will go for the four-game sweep of Washington when the Wizards visit Toronto next week. They are now four games ahead of the Wizards and a game and a half in front of the fourth-place Chicago Bulls, Torontos Wednesday opponent at the Air Canada Centre. "Thats a tough team," Lowry said of the Bulls, who will be well rested having arrived in Toronto Tuesday, getting the night off. "A different type of game tomorrow night. Theyre very defensive-minded. Theyve got a great coach [in Tom Thibodeau] and a very intense team, with Joakim (Noah) their All-Star. He leads the charge so weve got to match his intensity." -cheap-marquise-blair-jersey-seahawks.html" target="_blank">Seattle Seahawks Marquise Blair Jersey . Hes had three top-10 results this season and feels ready to put it all together and finally hoist a trophy at the top level. Cheap Seattle Seahawks Gear . Pistorius denied the allegation that he said to the close friend of the girlfriend he killed: "How can you sleep at night?" The accusation by Kim Myers provided a bizarre twist during the trial of the world-famous double-amputee Olympian, who is facing 25 years to life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder for shooting dead Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, at his home last year. http://www.cheapseahawks.com/ . 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Then they had to play two of the hottest teams in the NHL. They beat both -- decisively. Peter Budaj stopped 34 shots and the Canadiens ended the Boston Bruins four-game winning streak with a 4-1 win Thursday night. The victory came just two days after they stopped Carolinas four-game winning streak with a 3-0 win. "Its good for the confidence," Montreal coach Michel Therrien said. "Even when things werent going our way, we tried to stay positive." The Canadiens had been outscored 19-5 in losing four consecutive games. The Bruins had won their previous four games by a combined score of 21-8. But Boston was outplayed from start to finish. "We didnt skate. We didnt execute, and we didnt make good decisions," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We werent very good." The Canadiens were outstanding. Their speed and emotion put them in front of the Bruins all night long. "This was close to a complete game for us," said Daniel Briere, who scored Montreals last goal while playing just 7 minutes, 39 seconds. "We needed that after spending the last week dropping some big games and by big scores as well." Alexei Emelin and Max Pacioretty scored before Dougie Hamiltons goal cut Montreals lead to 2-1 after one period. Brian Gionta made it 3-1 at 11:54 of the second, ending goalie Tuukka Rasks night. He was replaced by Chad Johnson, who allowed the first shot he faced, by Briere, to get past him less than two minutes later. Julien wouldnt say why he pulled Rask. And Rask said he felt OK. "I play as long as they tell me to play," he said. "Youd like to stop everything, right? But, today, I didnt." The Bruins had scored six goals in each of their previous three games. The Canadiens scored five times during their four-game slide. "Usually, when you go through tough stretches, people have a tendency to panic," Budaj said. "Tonight we played well against a really good teeam.dddddddddddd" The losing streak ended Tuesday night against Carolina when Carey Price stopped 36 shots in his third shutout of the season. Budaj was nearly as good while improving his career record in Boston to 4-0 with just five goals allowed. "We played well against a really, really good team," he said. "This building is always rocking. Its always exciting to play these type of games." Boston remained in first place in the Atlantic Division and second in the Eastern Conference but Montreal was aggressive from the start, quite a change from the Bruins previous two games. They outshot Florida 19-8 in the first period of a 6-2 win Tuesday night. That came one night after they took 18 of the first 20 shots in a 6-3 win over the New York Islanders. But they fell behind early Thursday night and never caught up. Emelin got his first goal in 32 games this season when he converted a slap shot from the right point with four players standing right in front of the crease just 2:16 into the game. Pacioretty scored his team-leading 23rd goal at 14:32. He received a pass along the left side in centre ice, skated behind the defence and put a short backhander behind Rask. But Hamilton scored his fifth goal just a minute later. Neither team had many good opportunities in the first half of the second period. But less than two minutes later, Tomas Plekanec took a power-play shot from the right circle and Gionta tipped it in for his ninth goal. Briere finished the scoring with a shot Johnson had little chance to stop. With three Bruins chasing him and only the goalie in front of him, Briere fired a 10-foot forehand shot over Johnsons shoulder. NOTES: Briere had a goal and an assist after getting just one assist in his previous 10 games. ... The Bruins fell to 12-3 in their last 15 home games. ... Budaj is 4-1 with one shutout in five career games against the Bruins. ... For the first time in the last 10 games between the teams, the final margin was more than one goal. The last time that happened was on Oct. 29, 2011, when Montreal won 4-2. 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