TORONTO – James Johnson poured in a season-high 20 points to lift the Raptors to an 87-82 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday, Toronto’s eighth victory in 10 outings.
DeMar DeRozan added 18 points, while Amir Johnson had 15 and Kyle Lowry had 12. Jonas Valanciunas grabbed a season-high 16 rebounds in one of Toronto’s best defensive efforts of the season.
The Atlantic Division-leading Raptors (35-17) were coming off a huge 123-107 win over the Clippers on Friday that saw them claw their way back from an early 20-point deficit.
They never led by more than 10 in Sunday’s dogfight, and went into the fourth quarter up 64-58 in front of an Air Canada Centre capacity crowd of 19,800 that included Toronto FC’s newest acquisition Sebastian Giovinco.
The Spurs fought back and a three-pointer by Marco Belinelli with 2:20 to play gave San Antonio a three-point lead. A dunk from Amir Johnson got the fans on their feet and cut the lead to one. Then James Johnson – who started in place of Greivis Vasquez in just his second game back from missing four with a hamstring injury – stepped back to drill a three with 50 seconds left as the crowd roared.
The Raptors dug in on defence on the Spurs’ next possession, then James Johnson sunk a free throw with four seconds left. Duncan chucked the ball across the court and out of bounds to seal the Raptors’ win.
The Spurs were a horrible 31-for-93 shooting, as the Raptors held the Spurs’ big three of Duncan, Tony Parker and Ginobili to a combined 10-for-40.
The Raptors’ five-game homestand ends Wednesday when they host the Washington Wizards.
The Spurs’ loss leaves coach Gregg Popovich just one win shy of 1,000.
James Johnson led the way with eight first-quarter points to help the Raptors go up by 10. But the Spurs closed the quarter with an 11-2 run, and the Raptors took a narrow 28-25 lead into the second.
A Belinelli finger roll capped a 17-5 Spurs run that gave San Antonio a nine-point lead midway through the second. Toronto replied with a 7-0 run to head to the halftime dressing room trailing by just a point, 46-45.
The Raptors held the Spurs to just 12 points in a third quarter that saw them race out to a 17-3 run for a six-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
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