Trent Jr. scores 42, Raptors hold off league-leading Suns

PHOENIX — The Toronto Raptors missed Fred VanVleet for five games with a knee injury. Now that the All-Star is back, Gary Trent Jr. and the rest of the Raptors feel anything is possible.

Trent scored 42 points and the Raptors held off the NBA-leading, but short-handed Phoenix Suns 117-112 on Friday night.

Trent was 8 from 11 from three-point range — one of the misses was a halfcourt heave before halftime — and 13 of 21 from the floor. He fell just short of his career high of 44 points set last season. He also had eight rebounds.

“It's great, when Freddie's out there, the player he is, he gets a lot of attention,” Trent said. “Everybody complements each other. It's great to have him back.”

Raptors coach Nick Nurse agreed.

“I know it's a fairly small sample size here, but he didn't get a whole lot going with Freddie off the floor,” he said. “(With VanVleet) there's better spacing, there's a lot of concentration on Fred. That's what I saw tonight, there was better spacing for Gary to operate.”

“He got going and there were times where we just stared at him or we didn't get there,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “He hit some tough shots.”

The Raptors improved to 36-30, winning two straight after dropping three in a row, the final three games VanVleet missed.

VanVleet had 10 points and eight rebounds Friday. Pascal Siakam added 25 points and 10 assists for the Raptors, and Scottie Barnes had 15 points.

Cameron Payne had a career high-tying 24 points before fouling out in the final seconds for the Suns, and Devin Booker scored 22 points. Booker missed two 3-point attempts in the final minute and was held to three points in the fourth quarter.

“We had chances to win but you are not always going to get the fair whistle,” Booker