PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Samuel Dalembert heeded the advice of Hall of Fame center Moses Malone earlier this week when the former Philadelphia center told him to get mean.
Thaddeus Young scored a career-high 29 points, Dalembert snapped out of his recent slump, and the Philadelphia 76ers handed the Toronto Raptors their sixth straight loss with a 115-106 victory Wednesday night.NBA roundup
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"We got a lot of contributions from a lot of people," Sixers coach Tony DiLeo said. "Both (Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller) were hurting tonight and Sam really stepped up and Thad really stepped up."
Dalembert, who entered the night with only three blocks over the last four games, recorded his 11th double-double of the season with a season-high 19 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots. Young was 13-for-20 from the field as Philadelphia (31-31) got back to .500.
"Obviously, Chris Bosh is a very good player," said Dalembert, who has come under criticism over a recent four-game span of uninspired play. "After I got that first foul (just 11 seconds into the game) I put everything on the line. I said, 'Hey, you cannot be soft on him. Don't let him get going,' and that changed the game for us."
Bosh was limited to 17 points for Toronto after consecutive 30-point outings. He had scored a total of 57 points in two previous meetings this season against Philadelphia, but missed four of his first five shots and struggled to get anything going for much of the night.
"We didn't do a good job of getting in front of people defensively and Dalembert was the beneficiary," Toronto coach Jay Triano said. "Our offense was fine, but we couldn't stop them."
Especially Young, who thought the only thing that stopped him from his first 30-point game was his teammate, Lou Williams. Young missed a pair of late free throws, then gave a look toward Williams.
"I just went out there and played," Young said. "The difference between today and any other day is I was making shots and my team kept me going. I thank them for leaning toward me to get me shots. I knew I had 29 points. I'm blaming Lou. He jinxed me and had a nice talk with me before I took those free throws."
Notes: Iguodala left the game for the final 5:51 of the first half with a lower back strain. He returned at the start of the second half. Without Iguodala, the Sixers extended an 11-point lead to high as 20 points and led by 17 at the half. . . . Miller saw a stretch of five consecutive 20-point games come to an end.
