Keldon Johnson scored 23 points off the bench and Stephon Castle added 20 that included a late basket and free throw as the host San Antonio Spurs roared back in the second half to beat the Toronto Raptors 125-118 on Sunday afternoon in the season finale for both teams.
Neither the Spurs (34-48) nor the Raptors (30-52) qualified for the postseason. San Antonio has not been in the playoffs since 2019 while the Raptors failed to reach the postseason for the third straight year.
The Spurs trailed by 22 points early in the third quarter before tying the game late in the period and taking a 99-98 lead with 9:54 to play. San Antonio went to the front for good on two free throws by Malaki Branham with 7:03 to play. Castle’s three-point play and Chris Paul’s jumper with 1:28 remaining pushed the margin to 118-111.
That was more than enough for the Spurs to hold on. Harrison Barnes added 18 points for San Antonio while Paul hit for 15, Julian Champagnie scored 14, Sandro Mamukelashvili contributed 12 and Branham tallied 11 in the win.
Toronto’s Scottie Barnes led all scorers with 35 points and added 11 rebounds and eight assists. Jamison Battle added 25 points, A.J. Lawson and Ochai Agbaji had 14 each, and Jamal Shead had 11. Jonathon Mogbo racked up 14 rebounds and 10 assists for the Raptors — missing a triple-double by one point.
Toronto enjoyed a 37-32 advantage after 12 minutes of play. The Raptors kept their collective foot on the accelerator, expanding their advantage to 59-43 on Barnes’ turnaround jumper with 4:41 to play in the second quarter.
San Antonio drew to within 13 points on Champagnie’s 3-pointer with 2:23 remaining before Toronto finished the half with an 11-4 run to carry a 74-54 margin into the break.
San Antonio leaned on its veteran players to get back into the game in the third quarter as Paul and Barnes combined for 14 straight points to drag their team to within 84-76. Mamukelashvili’s layup with 36 seconds left in the period tied the game at 96-96.
–Field Level Media
