VanVleet, Siakam combine for 63 points as Raptors survive late rally from Pistons

The Toronto Raptors almost suffered another late-game collapse. But this time, they weathered the storm.

Fred VanVleet had a game-high 35 points and eight assists as the Toronto Raptors survived a late comeback effort from Detroit to take a 119-118 victory over the Pistons on Sunday. Detroit outscored Toronto 23-11 in the final 3:27 of the game after being down 13.

"I thought we hung tough. We played a very good team, they've got a lot of talent," said Raptors assistant coach Adrian Griffin, who worked the bench in place of head coach Nick Nurse.

It was VanVleet's ninth 30-point game of the season, setting a career mark. His previous high was eight in 2021-22.

Pascal Siakam added 28 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, for Toronto (27-31). Scottie Barnes scored 20.

Jakob Poeltl had six points and five rebounds in 25 minutes of action in his first start since being traded to the Raptors on Thursday. He fouled out of the game with 2:32 remaining.

"I thought he got better as the game went on," VanVleet said of Poeltl. "He's got a very high IQ and he's such a smart player, so definitely lucky to have that at the centre position."

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Bojan Bogdanovic scored a team-high 33 points for Detroit (15-43). Alec Burks and Hamidou Diallo added 21 and 18 points, respectively, off the bench.

After the Raptors had their three-game winning streak snapped on Friday thanks to a Utah comeback, they held up late on Sunday to avoid back-to-back losses.

Siakam scored six of the Raptors' first eight points in the final frame to give Toronto a 92-78 edge 1:56 in.

But Detroit made a run as two Burks free throws with 33.1 seconds left made it a 116-110 game.

A Barnes turnover led to a