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Bosh new scoring king

Chris Bosh’s 22 points made him the Toronto Raptors’ all-time leading scorer, but he was happier that they helped his team to a win.
Chris Bosh; Keith Bogans
Toronto Raptors' Chris Bosh

Raptors 91 Spurs 86

TORONTO — Chris Bosh’s 22 points made him the Toronto Raptors’ all-time leading scorer, but he was happier that they helped his team to a win.

Bosh pushed his career regular-season scoring total with the Raptors to 9,428 points in Toronto’s 91-86 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. Vince Carter held the old mark at 9,420 points.

“Yeah, that was the best part,” Bosh said. “I was kind of thinking that it would be really nice to set the record and everything — I wanted to win as well. That was the main focus of the whole day and it made it that much better.”

The points that pushed Bosh past Carter came on a 16-foot jumper with 1:39 left in the third quarter and gave the Raptors at 65-51 lead, a lead that shrunk to three late in the game.

Bosh is the face of the Raptors franchise, and he was big down the stretch before an Air Canada Centre crowd of 18,323. His driving lay-up with 56.9 seconds left in the game put the Raptors ahead 85-80.

“Responsibility and expectations are very high,” Bosh said. “You raise the bar every year and you are expected to do better every year. You have to keep your performance up even though you are the main focal point of everybody’s schemes. It’s a part of it.

“People will look to you for advice and they look to you to set an example both on and off the court. I’m just trying to do a steady and keep doing a decent job.”

Bosh was selected by the Raptors in the first round, the fourth player taken overall, in the 2003 NBA draft.

The Spurs came on again late in the game led by Tim Duncan, who began the game on the bench for only the second game in his career. They pulled to within two points, 85-83, when Keith Bogans hit a three-pointer with 20.9 seconds left.

But Bosh put the Raptors ahead by four points when he made two free throws with 11 seconds left. The Spurs cut the lead to three points twice more in the dying seconds but could get no closer.

Duncan made one of two free throws to make it 87-84 and Manu Ginobili’s driving lay-up made it 89-86. Each time the Raptors converted both their free throws to restore the five-point margin.

Jarrett Jack scored 16 points and Andrea Bargnani had 15 points.

Duncan who first entered the game with 10 minutes let in the first half finished with 21 points and Tony Parker had 23 points for the Spurs.

Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said he was trying preserve Duncan for the long run. Both teams played on Saturday night with the Spurs winning in Washington and the Raptors losing in Boston.

“He (Duncan) has played a lot of minutes,“ Popovich said. “He played more than we wanted (Saturday) night. We just wanted to have him in the fourth quarter rather than in the first. Not too much happens in the first quarter of NBA games.”

The teams met Nov. 9 in San Antonio with the Spurs winning 131-124.

“It was one of those grind-them-out games,” Raptors head coach Jay Triano said. “Every possession was a fight and a battle, not like the first time we played them.”

The Raptors shot 42.9 per cent from the field and the Spurs shot 41.3 per cent.

Bosh said the Raptors did not change anything in the preparations when told Duncan would not start.

“We prepared the same way,” he said. “We knew they were going to come out playing well. You kind of figured that they were going to see how the game was going to go before they played Tim.”

Duncan realized that not starting him was a move with the long-term in view.

“Yes it is and it’s tough to swallow,” Duncan said. “We are all competitors and we all want to win every game. We all want to be able to play in every game and play in every minute of every game but that’s just not how it goes.”

The Spurs were 16-for-27 in free throws (59.3 per cent) and the Raptors were 24-for-27 (88.9 per cent).