SAN ANTONIO — The San Antonio Spurs built a 26-point lead in the third quarter and held off a late rally from the Toronto Raptors to claim their sixth straight win, 117-107 at the AT&T Center on Tuesday.
Power forward Tim Duncan and small forward Kawhi Leonard both collected double-doubles, and point guard Tony Parker dropped in a team-high 23 points for the Spurs, who denied the Raptors their first-ever season sweep of San Antonio.
Duncan was held without a field goal for the first time in his career Sunday against the Chicago Bulls, but he put back his own miss for the Spurs’ first two points of the game and finished with12 points and 13 rebounds.
Leonard got off to a slow shooting start but had five rebounds in the first quarter on his way to a 24-point, 11-rebound night. Guard Danny Green lit the Raptors up from 3-point range with a 5-for-7 night and 19 points.
Guards Kyle Lowery and DeMar DeRozan sparked the Raptors’ comeback with 29 and 21 points, respectively. Lowery drained a 3-pointer with four minutes remaining and DeRozan added a free throw at the 3:34 mark to get Toronto within 100-94.
Forward Amir Johnson scored 16 points and added 14 rebounds for the Raptors, who had won the first two games on their three-game road trip.
But Leonard stopped the Raptors’ hopes with a driving layup and a pair of free throws that extended the Spurs’ lead back to double figures, and Green put it away with his fifth 3-pointer of the night.
Green’s first of four treys without a miss in the first half — one of which turned into a four-point play after a foul early in the second quarter — gave the Spurs a 15-13 lead with 3:44 to go in the opening quarter, and they never trailed again.
San Antonio extended the lead with an 11-0 run that spanned the first and second quarters and made it a 32-17 margin. The teams traded baskets for nearly the entire second quarter as the Spurs took a 61-41 lead into the locker room.
After a DeRozan jumper started the scoring in the third, the Spurs scored the next eight for a 26-point advantage they held three times before the Raptors began cutting into it.
Spurs guard Manu Ginobili missed the game with gastroenteritis, and Duncan left with about a minute remaining with an unspecified injury.
NOTES: San Antonio has used 23 different starting lineups, fourth in the NBA, and has had 13 different players lead it in scoring at least once, which is second. … Spurs PG Tony Parker played in his 988th career game Sunday against Chicago, passing David Robinson for second most in franchise history. … Toronto finished a three-game road trip and will return home for seven of its next 10 games. … The Raptors are closing in on clinching a winning record for the second straight season for the first time since finishing above .500 three consecutive years from 1999-2000 through 2001-2002.