San Antonio vs Toronto, Final Score; Spurs continue streak against Raptors 101-97

The Spurs started the game with a careless toss out of bounds by Dejounte Murray after a really nice block by Kyle Anderson on a Kyle Lowry three. The Spurs had 4 early TOs, and they ended the first quarter with 6. Anderson had a second block after Toronto went on a bit of a run to take a 12-9 lead. Danny Green showed off his improved off-the-dribble game with a reverse lay in and 1. The Spurs got the lead back when Joffrey Lauvergne made a strong move off his own miss, and yet another 3 by Manu Ginobili. The Spurs ended the sloppy and defensive quarter down 23-21.

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Rudy Gay lit an offensive fire with his first three as a Spur to tie it up at 27, and then Old Man Manu had a beautiful drive and lay in, and followed that by taking the charge on the other end. Patty Mills grabbed the lead back on a long two, and then a nice pass from Pau Gasol to a wide open Rudy Gay under the basket for the dunk. Toronto called time at 35-30 and then turned it over off a foul on the inbound pass. San Antonio slowed down the TOs in the second quarter, with their first of the quarter not coming until almost 5 minutes in, but the silver and black still ended the first half with 12. After the Raptors regained the lead after a 6-0 run, the Spurs then went on a run of their own, including a big three and then a block on 7-footer Jakob Poeltl by Danny Green. The last minute of the half just saw mad scrambles until a steal by Norman Powell almost gave the Raptors the lead at the half, but he didn’t get it off in time, and we went into halftime 50-50.

After a fourth block by Green (he ended with 5 on the night), Murray opened up the scoring in the second half on a hard drive to the paint, but then Kyle Lowry answered with a 3 of his own. DeMar DeRozan posterized Aldridge, and Murray answered by luring Serge Ibaka into his second goal tending call of the game. After Gasol dropped the ball off for a second Verde three, Murray hit a beautiful floater, leading the Raptors to call time. The standard Spurs ball movement was on exhibition with Aldridge posting up, and Lauvergne driving and getting the wide-open dunk off of a great feed by Aldridge. At the end of the 3rd, the Spurs were out-rebounding the Raptors 47-22, but also had 18 turnovers to the Raptors’ 8, which negated the board advantage. The Spurs still led after 3, 75-74.

Toronto built up an 81-75 lead after a clear path foul by Patty Mills, and then a 3 by C.J. Miles. After Pop called time, the Spurs went on a quick run, and Aldridge tied it up on a fadeaway, and then took the lead on a pick-and-pop from the line. Green gave the Spurs a three point lead after the fake, dribble, and shot which again proves how good he’s gotten off the dribble. After Green drove into the paint, spun, and dropped in the floater, Toronto called the timeout, and Ibaka and Aldridge started a shoving match which got the crowd into the game, but luckily ended in double techs-just some good hard ball. With less than 2 minutes left, Aldridge got the ball on the elbow and spun around Ibaka for the and-1 and Ibaka’s 6th foul, knocking him out of the game. More importantly, it gave the Spurs a 10 point lead, the biggest of the game for either team, with 1:48 left in the game. Dejounte Murray iced the game with two free throws to give the Spurs a 99-91 lead with 20.9 seconds left and earned him 14 points to go along with his career-high 15 boards. The Spurs only had 2 turnovers in the fourth quarter to put away the Raptors, but still ended with 20 on the night. Aldridge had 20 on the night, but for my money, the player of the game was Dejounte Murray, who had 16 points and 15 boards, and disrupted the Raptors all night with his length.

Up Next:

The Spurs face the Miami Heat on Wednesday, October 25 at 7:00 p.m. See you then!