Parker nets 34 as Spurs drop Raptors
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tony Parker finished with a double-double, 106 victory over the Raptors at Air Canada Centre on Wednesday.
"The last couple of weeks, he's been playing at a big time level," Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said about Parker. "He's one of my favorite players. He's so slithery and so quick and now he's gotten a little strength. He makes it tough to get into him and guard him in these situations. Now he's developed a jump shot, so you have to honor that."
Danny Green and Tiago Splitter each chipped in 13 points for San Antonio, which improved to 5-0 on its current nine-game rodeo road trip.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DeMar DeRozan paced the Raptors with 29 points and Jose Calderon added a double-double with 16 points and 11 assists as the Raptors dropped their third straight game and have now lost eight of their last ten contests.
Trailing by ten at halftime, the Raptors came out on fire in the third, making their first ten attempts from the field as a James Johnson layup tied the game at 66 for the first time since the opening tip.
However San Antonio had an answer, ripping of an 11-2 spurt to regain control of the game and take a 79-70 lead with just over two minutes left in the quarter.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ed Davis capped the scoring in the third as his layup brought the Raptors within five, 83-78, heading into the final frame.
San Antonio seemed poised to take control after Splitter converted on back-to- back buckets, but the Raptors scored the next six to pull within one, 97-96, with 4:14 remaining.
The Spurs, however, went on an 8-2 run down the stretch to take a 105-98 lead.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Parker went 8-for-8 from the line down the stretch to keep the Raptors at bay and close out the victory for the Spurs.
"Every game is new, it presents different challenges," said Spurs head coach Greg Popovich about his team's winning streak. "I'm going to go ahead and guess we're probably going to lose at some point, maybe real quickly at some point. But you take some good lessons from wins and losses."
The Spurs got out to an early 10-2 start, but Leandro Barbosa sank a running three-pointer at the first quarter buzzer to pull the Raptors back within single-digits, 25-17.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DeRozan scored the final eight points of the half for Toronto, but Green knocked down a trey from the wing to put San Antonio back up 10, 55-45, heading into the locker room.
Game Notes
San Antonio has now won 23 of 32 in this series...Toronto's Linas Kleiza missed Wednesday's contest with a sore left knee/ankle after injuring it Tuesday night in a loss to New York.