VANCOUVER. Four All-Stars --- Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry of the Raptors and Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum --- brought the star power in an entertaining match at the Rogers Arena on Saturday night.
Also in attendance among the sold-out crowd were former Raptors VP Isaiah and retired former Raptor Shawn Marion.
The first quarter saw a torrid exchange that ended with Portland nursing a 33-32 lead. Toronto trailed by as many as seven points but the Raptors, behind Kawhi's relentless assault to the basket, roared back and seized a seven-point lead, 64-57.
Both coaches elected not to start their All-Stars at the start of the third quarter, a ploy that the deeper Raptors bench pounced on by building a 17-point advantage.
Portland sank a barrage of threes to creep to within nine, but the Raptors pushed the lead back to 20 in the fourth quarter to coast to an easy victory.
Jonas Valancianus paced Toronto with 17 while Lowlry added 15. Leonard finished with 12 and Fred VanVleet had 11. Myles Leonard led the Trail Blazers with 16 while Lillard tallied 12.
photos@philboxing by Ronaldo Samonte
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