Tony Parker scored 32 points and had six rebounds in San Antonio Spurs' fourth straight victory over the Toronto Raptors 111-106 Sunday.
Six of those 32 points came crucially in second overtime, with Tim Duncan applauding his teammates' performance.
"He's our closer and he has been that way for the last couple of years," the Associated Press quoted Duncan as saying. "He steps up and makes big shots for us. That's what we ask him to do and he's delivered for us."
Duncan had 26 points, six assists and five rebounds, whereas Manu Ginobili added 15 points, five assists and seven rebounds, while Danny Green had 13 and nine rebounds.
"We take pride in winning on the road," Ginobili said.
"In a lot of ways, (Toronto) played better than we did," Spurs coach Greg Popovich added. "They destroyed us on the boards. For most of the meat of the game they just threw it up there, missed it and they'd go get it again.
"That kept them in the ballgame. We did a better job in the overtimes defensively and on the boards, and that got us over the hump."
Toronto's top scorer DeMar DeRozan had 29 points and grabbed seven rebounds, whereas Jonas Valanciunas added 22 points and also had seven rebounds. Kyle Lowry scored 20 points with Ed Davis contributing with 15 points and 14 rebounds.
Center Andrea Bargnani could not perform as per expectations. He was poor from the field, making just two out of 19 attempts.
"Today was definitely a very bad night," Bargnani said. "Maybe the worst."
Raptors coach Dwane Casey still had full confidence in his center and he refused to bench Bargnani.
"I've got to go with Andrea," Casey said. "He's our guy."
It was a very tight game. San Antonio were trailing by one point at the end of the first quarter. But in the second quarter they outscored the Raptors 25-24. In the third quarter Toronto yet again took a one point lead.
Spurs, however, tied the game at the end of the fourth quarter with the scores reading 88-88.
In first overtime, Spurs were leading 94-90, thanks to a layup from Parker.
"I saw that Calderon was going to lob it and so I felt that with my speed I could sneak in there and get it," Parker said. "I just tried to make a play and it worked out for me."
Lowry netted a three to reduce the gap to one point. Then Ginobili's two free throws stretched Spurs' lead to 96-93.
However, when Spurs looked like they had control, Raptors, refusing to give up found a way back to tie the game at 97.
In the second OT, Green scored 3 with 4:43 to go and the Spurs took the lead, which the would not relinquish.
"It's tough that we couldn't close it out at the end," Davis said. "We were fighting hard the whole game."
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