Fred VanVleet poured in 26 points in his return after a five-game absence because of injury and Scottie Barnes added 20 points, 18 of them in the second half, as the visiting Toronto Raptors rolled to a 119-104 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday.
The loss kept San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich tied with Don Nelson at 1,335 atop the list of career regular-season NBA coaching wins.
The Raptors led by five points with 9:50 to play before producing an 9-0 run that gave them the margin they needed to clinch the win. Toronto stretched its advantage to as many as 17 points in the final minutes before both teams emptied their benches.
Pascal Siakam also scored 20 points for the Raptors, with Gary Trent Jr. hitting for 17 and Precious Achiuwa adding 13 points as Toronto snapped a three-game losing streak.
The Spurs’ Keldon Johnson led all scorers with 27 points while Dejounte Murray racked up 25 points and 12 assists, Lonnie Walker IV hit for 13 points and Jakob Poeltl had 11 points and 12 rebounds in the loss. San Antonio has lost five of its past six games.
The Raptors led for all but the first two minutes before taking a 34-29 advantage after the first quarter behind Siakam’s 11 points. San Antonio used an 8-0 run to rally to tie the game at 45 after Murray’s jumper with 7:21 to play in the half and went in front at 53-52 on two Johnson free throws at the 3:05 mark.
The Spurs built that lead to as many as four points before settling for a 61-58 edge at the break. Johnson and Murray had 15 points each in the half, Walker scored 11 and Murray had 10 assists by halftime as San Antonio outshot the Raptors 56.1 percent to 47.6 percent over the first two quarters.
VanVleet led all scorers with 21 points in the half and Siakam finished with 15.
The Spurs led by seven after Murray’s layup with 9:19 to play in the third quarter but Toronto tied the game at 69 on Barnes putback a minute and a half later. The Raptors slowly pulled away, forging a nine-point advantage on Siakam’s two free throws with 30.4 seconds to play and led 91-84 heading into the final period.
–Field Level Media
