Basketball: Lowry, DeRozan spark Raptors past Blazers

Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors high fives head coach Dwane Casey during the first half of the game against the Phoenix Suns. PHOTO: AFP

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan combined for 59 points as the Toronto Raptors beat the Portland Trail Blazers 110-103 at the Moda Center on Thursday.

Lowry scored 30 points with eight assists while DeRozan added 29 points for the Raptors (34-16), who won for the 13th time in their last 14 outings.

Centre Jonas Valanciunas chipped in with 14 points and 11 rebounds for Toronto, who won for only the second time in their last 13 trips to Portland and first since December 2006.

Guard Damian Lillard collected 27 points and 11 assists while guard CJ McCollum had 21 points for the Trail Blazers (24-27), who lost for only the third time in 12 games.

Guard Allen Crabbe added 17 points off the Portland bench.

DeRozan and Lowry combined for 25 points to take Toronto to a 59-51 lead at half-time.

DeRozan scored 14 points and Lowry 11 in the first half while Valanciunas had 10 points and seven rebounds.

Toronto increased their lead to 66-54 but the Blazers rallied to get within four points before the Raptors took an 82-75 advantage into the final period.

Portland trimmed the margin to 84-81 but Lowry scored eight points in a 10-0 Toronto run to hike the lead to 94-81 with 6min and 52sec remaining.

The Blazers cut the difference to 101-93 after a Lillard trey with 3min and 12sec to play.

His jumper got them to within 106-99 with 1min and 19sec to go, and a pair of foul shots by Crabbe made it a five-point game with 55.3 seconds left.

Lillard stole a pass but McCollum missed a jumper, and Valanciunas converted a pair at the line for a 108-101 Toronto advantage with 33.9 seconds remaining.

DeRozan (12) and Lowry (six) combined for all of the points as Toronto took a 18-12 lead to start the game. The Raptors upped the margin to 37-23.

It was 37-25 at the first-quarter break and 43-27 early in the second quarter before the Blazers used a 7-0 run to close the gap to 43-34.

Portland trimmed the difference to 53-47, and the Raptors settled for an eight-point bulge at the half.

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