Raptors top Heat for fifth straight win

TORONTO Kawhi Leonard scored 29 points while Jonas Valanciunas had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lift the league-leading Toronto Raptors to their fifth consecutive victory on Sunday, a 125-115 win over the Miami Heat.

Pascal Siakam added 21 points for Toronto (17-4), while Kyle Lowry finished with 12 points and 10 assists. Fred VanVleet, C.J. Miles and Delon Wright each added 10 points off the bench.

Dwyane Wade made the Toronto stop on his farewell tour a memorable one, scoring 35 points to pace the Heat (7-12) and make things interesting down the stretch.

Wade, who plans to retire at the end of this season (his 16th in the league), arrived in Toronto averaging 13.1 points, but after coming off the bench to a warm ovation, almost single-handedly throttled Toronto’s second unit with a vintage performance.

All three meetings between these two teams last season were decided by three points or less. The Raptors looked headed for a blowout on Sunday, taking a 26-point lead midway through the third quarter on a lovely Valanciunas tip-in off a Lowry lob.

But the Heat whittled the difference down to 101-89 to start the fourth quarter, and back-to-back three-pointers from Wade made it an eight-point game with 9:05 to play.

The Raptors regained control when Siakam drew a foul on a basket with 5:33 to play, his threepoint play putting Toronto up 118106.

Lowry drilled a three on Toronto’s next possession, and it was all but game over.

Leonard and Wade wound up on the floor tussling for a loose ball, and the hard-fought possession ended in a Siakam basket with 2:23 to play, putting a punctuation mark on Toronto’s win.

The Raptors are in Memphis on Tuesday then return home to host the Golden State Warriors on Thursday.