Raptors at Spurs
The Toronto Raptors aim to match their longest winning streak of the season at seven when they visit the San Antonio Spurs - the last team to beat them - on Sunday. The Raptors held off the New York Knicks for a 118-112 win at Madison Square Garden on Friday to stretch their run to six, and they're beginning to sense a cohesion similar to the one that propelled them to a title last season.
"I think we're battle-tested," All-Star forward Pascal Siakam told reporters after scoring 23 points. "We are a team that has guys that understand what it takes to win and when everything is not going right, don't panic and continue to play." Kyle Lowry scored 26 points in the win for Toronto, which improved to 15-7 on the road. The Spurs matched their longest winning streak at three but failed to push it to four straight with Friday's 103-99 loss in the opener of their two-game homestand. DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge combined for 46 points on 16-of-26 shooting for San Antonio but their teammates were 17-of-52 from the floor.
TIME: 4 p.m. ET. TV: Sportsnet One, KENS
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (31-14): Siakam was voted in as an All-Star for the first time while averaging 23.5 points and 7.6 rebounds, absorbing a good portion of what the championship team lost when Kawhi Leonard left as a free agent. "It's a hell of a climb in a couple years and I think not only for him," coach Nick Nurse told reporters of Siakam. "I've always said this repeatedly, he went to work on his game and he put in some serious time and had some great, I think, inner drive and at the same time handled all that was coming each time." Like Siakam, fifth-year guard Norman Powell has taken his game to another level and is averaging 21.7 points on 58.1 percent shooting in seven games since returning from a shoulder injury.
ABOUT THE SPURS (20-24): San Antonio has played Phoenix twice this season and it has been held to 16 points in the second quarter both times, and the Spurs could not recover from the swoon Friday night. "Second quarter was a killer," coach Gregg Popovich told reporters. "I thought their physicality, they got up into us in the second quarter. We had seven turnovers and that really kicked us." After hitting 40-of-91 3-pointers during its three-game winning streak, San Antonio hit just five of its 25 long-range attempts against the Suns.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Powell is 22-of-44 from 3-point range in January.
2. DeRozan averages 5.6 rebounds but has at least eight in six of his last eight games.
3. San Antonio rallied for a 105-104 win at Toronto on Jan. 12 and it owns a 10-game home winning streak in the series dating back to Dec. 28, 2007.