Spurs vs. Raptors: Score, Highlights, Reaction from 2017 Regular Season

The Toronto Raptors may have been without DeMar DeRozan (ankle) Tuesday night at Air Canada Centre, but a 108-106 loss to the San Antonio Spurs still served as a wake-up call.  

In a hot-and-cold effort that produced the Raptors' fourth straight loss, Dwane Casey's squad couldn't put the clamps on a shorthanded Spurs (36-9) team that was without Kawhi Leonard (hand), Tony Parker (foot), Pau Gasol (hand) and Jonathon Simmons (wrist). 

Compensating for those absences were LaMarcus Aldridge (21 points, seven rebounds), David Lee (11 points), Patty Mills (18 points), Davis Bertans (12 points) and rookie Dejounte Murray (11 points), who flashed veteran poise down the stretch to keep the Raptors at bay, as NBA TV documented on Twitter: 

Thanks to those combined efforts, the Spurs have now won five in a row and could conceivably threaten to reach the 70-win plateau, according to CBSSports.com's Matt Moore: 

"

We are back in “what if two teams win 70 games” https://t.co/QZTCxxjhb8

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) January 25, 2017"

Toronto (28-17) was paced by 30 points from Kyle Lowry, but he shot just 9-of-23 (1-of-7 from three) on a night when the Raptors converted 45.2 percent of their total looks and went 6-of-25 from beyond the arc. 

And despite the fact that the Spurs were without three of their top four scorers, points flowed at a steady pace early. Aldridge and Lee formed a dynamic one-two punch with their high-low stylings, and balanced bench contributions allowed San Antonio to pour in 61 points before halftime. 

The same couldn't be said for the DeRozan-less Raptors, who shot 3-of-12 from three and leaned on Lowry, Patterson and Powell to account for 40 of their 54 points in the first two quarters. 

To make matters worse, only one Raptors player outside of that trio (Lucas Nogueira) made more than one field goal before the second half got underway. 

However, that changed in a hurry once the third quarter rolled around. 

Toronto's bench came alive as the Spurs offense regressed to the mean, and by the time the frame was over, things were all knotted at 79. And as Hoop's Holly MacKenzie noted, the shooting splits spoke volumes: 

Terrence Ross (21 points) was a big reason for the second-half resurgence, which prompted The Athletic's Eric Koreen to point out just how streaky the fifth-year guard can be:

SB Nation's Raptors HQ echoed that sentiment during Ross' scoring tear: 

But valiant as their effort was, the Raptors couldn't close the door.

Crunch-time buckets proved elusive, as the Spurs regained the lead, and the Raptors simply didn't have a clutch response handy with their best isolation scorer out of the lineup. 

There won't be much time to dwell on the loss, either. A matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies is slated for Wednesday night at FedEx Forum, and David Fizdale's club figures to pose a stiff test on the second night of Toronto's grueling back-to-back. 

The Spurs, on the other hand, will be off until Friday when they travel to the Big Easy for a meeting with the New Orleans Pelicans. And once the finishing touches have been put on their four-game road trip, the Spurs will return home for a four-game homestand that's scheduled to run through Feb. 4. 

Postgame Reaction

After the loss, the Raptors relayed video of Casey's complete postgame comments: 

"If we play with that defensive intensity we had in the second half, I like that," Casey said, per the Toronto Star's Dave Feschuk. "I'll go to war with that."

Patrick Patterson, who dropped 12 points in 21 minutes off the bench, agreed with that assessment. 

"I think the second half was Raptors basketball," he said, per TSN's Josh Lewenberg. "We haven't played that way in a long time."

On the flip side, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich acknowledged that the Raptors easily could have snapped their skid. 

"I thought it was a really competitive game, anybody could have won the thing," Popovich said, per The Canadian Press (via TSN). "Down the stretch, very honestly, it just went our way. We didn't do anything special to deserve it other than playing hard just like they did, so we're thrilled with the win."

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.