I think that it was a matter of time before Toronto Raptors center Jermaine O’Neal would revert to his former self; unfortunately for him until recently, injuries had held back his progress.  In Friday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings, O’Neal played as if he was a member of his former team, the Indiana Pacers; he scored a season-high 36 points, leading Toronto to the hard-fought 107-101 win over Saramento at Arco Arena.  With the loss, the Kings have lost 5 straight.

The first half was two periods of attrition as neither team held leads for very long; Toronto went into halftime with a 56-51 lead.  But O’Neal and the Raptors would take over in the second half as they would go on a 16-3 run early on, getting 8 points from Jose Calderon; they would build their lead to 6 points late in the third quarter following a 3-pointer by Andrea Bargnani.  But Sacramento’s Bobby Brown would hit a 3 of his own as would Bobby Jackson with 0.5 seconds remaining in the period to cut Toronto’s lead to 85-82 going into the fourth quarter.

Sacramento missed its first three shots to start the final period and turned the ball over 3 times in the first 3:40 of the final quarter, falling behind 92-83; that’s when O’Neal took over for the Raptors.  He hit a pair of drives midway through the fourth quarter after the Kings tied the game at 95 with just under 5 minutes to go.  He would add another basket at the 1:13 mark then would get a steal with 21 ticks on the game clock, sealing the win for the Raptors.

Toronto’s high scorer was the aforementioned O’Neal with 36 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks while Calderon added 16 with 7 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal; Bargnani chipped in with 14 from off the bench.  Sacramento’s John Salmons and Brad Miller shared high scoring honors as they scored 20 points each – with Salmons grabbing 2 rebounds, dishing out 4 assists along with a steal while Miller grabbed 8 rebounds, dished out 3 assists, had 2 steals and blocked 2 shots; Jackson added 17 (including 3 treys) with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.  Toronto (12-17) plays again on Saturday when they go north to Portland to take on the Trail Blazers while Sacramento (7-23) hosts the Boston Celtics on Sunday.