BOSTON, Dec 29 — Kyle Lowry scored 30 points and registered seven assists last night for the visiting Toronto Raptors, who never trailed in a Christmas Day loss to the Boston Celtics with a 113-97 win in Boston.
Serge Ibaka finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds as the Raptors ended a two-game losing streak in their first game since falling to the Celtics 118-102 in Toronto on Wednesday. It was the first Christmas Day game played in Canada.
Patrick McCaw had 18 points, seven rebounds and a game-high eight assists for the Raptors, while Fred VanVleet also scored 18 points.
Kemba Walker scored 30 points for the Celtics, who had their five-game winning streak snapped. Jaylen Brown finished with 17 points, followed by Gordon Hayward (13), Jayson Tatum (12) and Enes Kanter (11).
The teams were tied four times in the first period, the last at 17-17 following a free throw by Marcus Smart with 5:29 left. McCaw’s layup gave the Raptors the lead for good and began a quarter-ending 19-8 run in which Ibaka scored seven points.
Smart drained a 3-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer to begin a 15-4 quarter-spanning run for the Celtics, who got within three points at 40-37 on a pair of free throws by Brad Wanamaker with 7:06 left.
The Raptors scored the next nine points and 13 of the next 15, a span in which six different players scored, to extend their lead to 53-39. Boston finished the half on a 15-6 run, capped by another buzzer-beating 3-pointer, this one by Walker, to pull within 59-54.
The teams continued trading runs in the third quarter. The Celtics scored nine in a row to pull within 70-67 with 6:35 left, before the Raptors responded with eight straight over the next 90 seconds.
The Celtics got within five just once more, on a layup by Brown with 1:13 left in the period.
Terence Davis’ putback gave the Raptors an 89-79 lead heading into the fourth, and Ibaka’s layup with 10:11 remaining lengthened the lead to double digits for good. Toronto led by as many as 17 over the final 12 minutes. — Reuters
