Lowry, Williams lead Raptors past Nuggets

DENVER — DeMar DeRozan’s injury was supposed to slow down the Toronto Raptors. Instead, they have thrived without their star guard.

Even playing the second of a back-to-back at altitude.

“We need him, we want him back and we can’t for him to get back,” guard Kyle Lowry said. “We know he’s getting closer but we can’t make excuses while he’s out. We’re 15 deep.”

They proved it Sunday night.

Lowry had 30 points and 11 assists, guard Lou Williams had 31 off the bench and the Raptors beat the Denver Nuggets 116-102 on Sunday night.

It was the Raptors’ eighth win in nine games. They’ve won two straight in Denver after losing nine in a row at Pepsi Center.

Toronto is now 11-4 since DeRozan was sidelined with a torn left adductor longus tendon, and a big reason is the play of Williams. He played well on both ends of the floor against the Nuggets and took the pressure off Lowry by handling point guard duties at times.

“He’s given us an offensive threat,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “Especially with DeMar out. Lou’s defense has been pretty good, too.”

Forward Kenneth Faried followed up his 26-point, 25-rebound game from Friday with 17 points and 19 rebounds for the Nuggets, who have lost three of four.

Guard Ty Lawson led Denver with 28 points and forward Wilson Chandler had 20 points and 10 rebounds.

The Raptors (24-7) own the best record in the Eastern Conference and have started this Western Conference portion of their six-game road trip with two wins in as many nights. They beat the Clippers in Los Angeles on Saturday.

“Confidence breeds confidence,” Williams said. “We’ve done a wonderful job of playing with confidence and going into games feeling you can win that game. We’re at that point where we feel we’re a pretty good team.”

The Raptors led by one midway through the fourth when they broke it open with nine straight points. Williams hit a 3-pointer and two free throws to start the run that gave Toronto a 104-94 lead.

“When Lou gets it going, you want to find him,” Lowry said. “Our team’s like that. We’re unselfish. We want everyone to be successful.”

Lowry stretched it to 109-98 with a three-point play with 3:59 remaining.

After two free throws by center Timofey Mozgov, forward Amir Johnson hit a short hook in the lane to make it 111-100.

“We didn’t crowd their shooters so they rose up and they shot 3-point shots with a high comfort level,” Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said. “That was the difference. We had to grind out for the shots we got and they were comfortable with the shots they got.

“Sixty-one points between Lou Williams and Lowry were too much to overcome.”

The Nuggets (13-18) had a chance to get within seven with 1:33 left but Faried was called for an offensive foul.

“It was very frustrating,” Faried said. “We couldn’t score a bucket for some reason, and when we did score, they had an answer for it. Kyle Lowry and Lou Williams got hot and it seemed like we couldn’t stop them.”

The Nuggets rallied from seven down early in the third to take a 76-75 lead on Faried’s layup late in the period, their first lead since late in the first quarter.

Toronto led 88-87 after three quarters.

The Raptors led by 13 late in the second quarter but Denver rallied to cut it to 56-54 on a rebound and dunk by Faried with 37.4 seconds left in the half.

A jumper by Williams and two free throws by forward Patrick Patterson made it 60-54 at halftime.

NOTES: Toronto G Landry Fields missed his fourth straight game with a concussion. He has yet to pass the concussion protocol to get back in the lineup. “My understanding is he passed a couple parts of it,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “But there is another area that he still has to pass. And he has to do it under stress.” … The Nuggets entered Sunday shooting 29 percent on 3-pointers in December. In their previous four games, they were 14 of 78 from long range. … The Raptors began play Sunday leading the NBA averaging 111.8 points per game on the road. … Nuggets F Darrell Arthur (leg) was active but didn’t play in Friday’s win over Minnesota because he had not gone through a full practice. He practiced Saturday.