TORONTO -- Jose Calderon had 22 points and 16 assists as the Toronto Raptors held on to beat the New Orleans Hornets 96-90 on Tuesday for just their fourth victory in their last 24 games.
DeMar DeRozan added 17 points for Toronto (17-44) while Andrea Bargnani, back after missing a game with flu-like symptoms, and Sonny Weems had 14 apiece. James Johnson added 13, and Amir Johnson grabbed 10 rebounds to go with eight points.
David West scored 19 points to top New Orleans (35-27), winners of just three of their last 12 games. Carl Landry and former Raptor Jarrett Jack scored 17 apiece, while former Raptor Marco Belinelli added 13 and Trevor Ariza finished with 10.
The Raptors have had trouble holding on to leads, coughing up a 19-point advantage en route to a 114-96 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, and it looked like it was going to be more of the same versus the Hornets.
The Raptors led for most of the night, going ahead by as much as 17 points early in the third quarter. But in what's become an all-too-familiar pattern for Toronto, the visitors began to chip away at the lead, pulling within two points on a basket by Landry with 5:48 left in the game, eliciting groans from the Air Canada Centre Crowd.
But back-to-back long jumpers from Bargnani and Calderon put Toronto back up by six, and then after a pair of West free throws, Calderon ran the length of the floor scoring on the fast break to give the Raptors another six-point cushion with 3:07 to go.
Belinelli connected on a three-pointer to cut Toronto's advantage to five points with a minute-and-a-half to go, but Amir Johnson responded with a monstrous dunk on the next time down the court to bring the crowd to its feet and secure the victory for Toronto.
The win came just a couple of hours before the Raptors were to board a flight after the game for London, where they'll play the New Jersey Nets in a pair of games Friday and Saturday at the O2 Arena, the basketball venue for the 2012 London Olympics. The games will be the first-ever held in Europe in the regular season.
Toronto shot 53 per cent in the first and Weems drained a three-pointer with 55 seconds left to put the Raptors up 27-20 heading into the second.
The Raptors continued to have the hot hand in the second, shooting 70 per cent in the quarter. The game was tied 37-37 with six minutes left in the half but Toronto ended the frame on a 20-5 run for a 57-42 advantage at halftime.
Toronto shot just 29 per cent in the third and New Orleans took advantage, cutting the Raptors' lead to 72-62 with a quarter left to play.
NOTES: The game marked the return of former Raptors Belinelli, Jack, and David Anderson, who were all traded this season in a pair of transactions. . . The Hornets defeated Toronto 85-81 in January in New Orleans. . . The Hornets were playing the first of a five-game road trip. . . Following their trip to London, the Raptors are back home for games against Utah, Indiana and Charlotte.
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