TAMPA. Fla. – Malachi Flynn and Khem Birch combined for 15 of Toronto’s last 19 points as the Raptors downed the San Antonio Spurs, 117-112, at Amalie Arena on Wednesday night.
Birch, who was picked up last week after he was waived by the Magic, scored six in a row and capped those with a slam that gave the Raptors a 105-95 lead with 4:54 to go.
Flynn, who had four threes on Tuesday night in the final two minutes, hit one and then a mid-range jumper, giving the Raptors their biggest lead at 110-97 with 3:30 left.
The Spurs finished their five-game road trip at 2-3 as they had a late push from DeMar DeRozen who scored eight in a row to cut the game to 112-106 with 1:57 to play.
OG Aununoby had 22 points, while Pascal Siakam had 20 and 11 boards. Derrick White led all scorers for San Antonio with 25.
Three Stars of the Game:
1 – OG Anunoby (22/4/3) – His athleticism makes him a tough matchup whether on the perimeter or cruising through the paint. He kept the Raptors within contact of San Antonio early in the first quarter with three of his four three-pointers.
2 – Khem Birch (14/6/2 blocks) – It’s too easy to include Siakam. We can do that every game, so let’s go with Birch as he is a Canadian player whose lifelong dream was to play for the Raptors. He was a difference maker on the interior on Wednesday as he found his shots in going 6-of-9 from the field and affecting shots on defense.
3 – Derrick White (25/3/5) – White hit three free throws with 32.5 seconds remaining that cut the score to 114-109, but his overall floor game was on point as was his three-point game where he buried 6-of-11.
The game was over when: Malachi Flynn made three free throws inside of 20 seconds. This game was always in doubt even when Toronto went up by 13 in with 2:10 to play on a dunk off a rebound by Anunoby. DeRozen’s clutch effort allowed for Dejounte Murray’s last three which cut it to 115-112 before Flynn’s final two foul shots with 11.6 seconds to play.
Silver Stuff: San Antonio started the road trip with two losses in Denver before Nuggets guard Jamal Murray went down with the season-ending knee injury as one of these was 121-119. The Spurs are a solid bet for play-in action as long as they don’t suffer a key injury or incur a long slump.
It’s a Rap’: It’s likely that we are not going to see 34-yard old star point guard Kyle Lowry again here in Tampa Bay. Lowry is in load management mode and hasn’t played in eight of the last nine games. He had a 38-minute performance in New York last Saturday as he had 19 points, seven boards and six assists.