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TORONTO -- The Toronto Raptors may be a different, tougher team with the recent additions of Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker. They may have been without All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry, who has missed the past two games with a wrist injury.
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They still have All-Star shooting guard DeMar DeRozan, however, whose scoring has been a constant all season.
DeRozan was at it again Sunday night scoring 33 points as the Raptors held off the stubborn Portland Trail Blazers for a 112-106 victory. DeRozan had a career-best 43 points Friday in a win over the Boston Celtics.
"That's the crazy thing, he had 33 and I thought we did a good job on him," Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "That's a credit to him, he's an exceptional player, he makes tough shots."
The Raptors have won three in a row after a period in which they struggled, winning only four of 15 games.
DeRozan said the addition of a player like Ibaka, who excels on defense and offense, has helped him. "It takes a lot of pressure off," DeRozan said. "The teams just have to understand that you have to pick and choose. You know we have another weapon out there for teams to worry about."
Ibaka scored and grabbed 10 rebounds for Toronto (35-24) while Jonas Valanciunas scored 15 points, Cory Joseph 14 and Delon Wright 11.
Damian Lillard scored 28 points for Portland (24-34), Maurice Harkless added 18 points, CJ McCollum 17 and Al-Farouq Aminu 13.
"Ibaka is a great addition to their team," Lillard said. "I think we had some opportunities. ... that we didn't make. Sometimes we didn't make good enough passes when guys were in a position to get good looks that was in part because of them getting a deflection here and there and the defense they played in. I thought we really competed on the defensive end. When you have that kind of defensive effort, you wish you could have a better offensive game."
The Raptors took a two-point lead into the fourth quarter.
Joseph scored for Toronto and converted the free throw to give Toronto a nine-point lead with 2:41 to play.
Allen Crabbe made two free throws and Lillard made a layup as Portland cut the lead to three points.
DeRozan got the lead back to five with an 18-foot jumper and then added two free throws with 30 seconds to play to give Toronto a seven-point lead.
Joseph has been starting in Lowry's spot at the point guard with support from reserves like Wright.
"Those guys did a good job," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "Not having our queen bee in there and our top guy to hand the ball off to offensively, defensively, 3-point shooting, we miss that part of it. Cory did a heck of a job of attacking the rim, getting to the basket, running the offense, defensively chasing around Lillard. They are doing a good job of filling in for Kyle."
Portland led 28-25 after the first quarter.
Portland bumped the lead to 12 on a 3-pointer by Aminu with 4:52 remaining the in the half.
The Raptors scored the next seven points to trim the lead to five, then Joseph and DeRozan hit jumpers to reduce the lead to one.
Joseph completed the first-half scoring with a floating jumper that left Toronto with a 53-52 lead at the intermission.
"We played (a) competitive game against a very good team," Stotts said. "We had a lot of guys do a lot of good things. It came down to the last couple of minutes and they made the plays. ... I thought we could have done better to kind of stem the ride on some of their runs."
The Raptors scored the first six points of the second half to lead by seven.
The Trail Blazers came back to take a two-point lead when Lillard hit a 3-pointer with 2:17 left in the third quarter and then hit a jumper with 1:47 to play.
Wright's driving layup in the final seconds of the third quarter gave Toronto an 82-80 lead.
Another driving layup by Wright gave Toronto a six-point lead with 8:59 to play.
"(Wright) did a great job coming in and being aggressive in the minutes he got and taking his shots," Joseph said. "I just tried to do the same thing. Obviously with (Lowry) out we have to step it up."
Lillard answered with a 3-pointer and the lead was down to three but when Wright scored on a layup the Raptors increased their lead to seven.
NOTES: Toronto G Kyle Lowry (right wrist) missed his second straight game and is listed as day-to-day. He was injured Feb. 15 in the win over the Charlotte Hornets, but played in the All-Star Game. He was a late scratch Friday before the win over the Boston Celtics. Tests came back clean and the swelling is subsiding. ... Portland F Al-Farouq Aminu (left knee) was returning to action Sunday after missing the previous two games. ... Portland G/F Evan Turner (right hand) and C Festus Ezell (left knee) did not play Sunday. ... The Raptors play their next game Monday against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. ... The Trail Blazers' next game is Tuesday against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
