NBA Game Summary - Phoenix at Toronto
Toronto, ON (SportsNetwork.com) - Jonas Valanciunas had 27 points and 11 rebounds, DeMar DeRozan scored 23 and the Toronto Raptors survived for a 104-100 win over the Phoenix Suns on Monday night.
The Raptors led by as many as 17 early in the fourth quarter before Isaiah Thomas made three consecutive 3-pointers to punctuate a quick 14-0 run by the Suns, who later took their first lead since the first quarter on two Eric Bledsoe free throws with 3:04 remaining.
But Phoenix scored just five more points and DeRozan made four straight free throws in the last 14.7 seconds to put Toronto over the top.
Lou Williams was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday and scored 17 points off the bench for the Raptors, who have won five in a row.
The Eastern Conference leaders ran their record to 4-0 this season against Western Conference teams.
"We gave ourselves a chance to win the game," said DeRozan. "(Valanciunas) dominated. We got him the ball on the low block and he got the three-foot, five-foot shots he always makes."
Bledsoe scored 25 points to lead the Suns, who had a four-game winning streak stopped and finished 4-2 on a six-game road trip. Markieff Morris added 17 points in the loss.
The Raptors have won 35 consecutive games when leading after three quarters and are 27-0 in that situation at Air Canada Centre since last season.
The Suns came close to ending the streak.
They may have been done in by two costly errors -- first when Kyle Lowry was able to poke the ball away from Thomas at the point, leading to a scramble near midcourt and a jump ball that the Raptors won.
Suns coach Jeff Hornacek said referees missed him and Thomas trying to call a timeout after Thomas dove on the ball.
"The referees are looking at me and I'm halfway onto the court," he said.
It led to two DeRozan free throws for a 102-98 Raptors lead with 14.7 seconds left.
Later, on the final Suns possession of the game, Gerald Green lost the ball out of bounds in the left corner trying to take a shot.
"We made a comeback but our guys just made some bad plays, I thought," said Hornacek. "We gambled too much at the end. When you're making a big comeback from 17 down in the fourth quarter, you can't make any errors."
Valanciunas scored 15 points in the first quarter to lead all players and Toronto used a 14-2 run to take the lead after Bledsoe stole an inbounds pass and buried a 3-pointer to put the Suns up by seven.
The Raptors carried a 29-26 advantage into the second and went up by as many as 10 in the quarter following a 9-0 run highlighted by Terrence Ross' reverse dunk. They led 54-48 at halftime on the strength of 29 points from Valanciunas and Williams on a combined 10-of-14 shooting.
The Raptors stretched their lead to 15 at the end of the third quarter after a late 10-1 run. DeRozan, Valanciunas and Lowry scored 20 of Toronto's 27 points in the quarter.