TORONTO -- Kyle Lowry scored 25 points with 11 assists as the Toronto Raptors spoiled Andrew Wiggins' northern homecoming with a 124-110 win Thursday night.
DeMar DeRozan added 27 points, including a nasty put-back jam over Ricky Rubio that left the Minnesota guard cowering with his hands over his head, while Jonas Valanciunas came out of his recent slump with a 20-point, 10-rebound performance for the Raptors (15-7).
Wiggins of Vaughan, Ont., scored 25 points after getting off to a scorching start, while athletic guard Zach LaVine poured in a game-high 29 for the Wolves (6-16). Versatile seven-footer Karl-Anthony Towns, usually a major nuisance for the Raptors, scored 15 of his 17 points in the third quarter, including a vengeful highlight-reel dunk over Valanciunas.
With the Raptors donning their alternate blue Huskies jerseys, it was a tight, back-and-forth affair until the fourth. After the Timberwolves entered the period with an 89-88 lead, neither team led by more than three points until Lowry managed a four-point play with 7:17 left. At that point, aside from an enthusiastically contested three hit by Wiggins on the next possession, the Raptors were off to the races.
An emphatic fast-break dunk from Terrence Ross brought the crowd to its feet, and they thundered again when ensuing back-to-back threes from Lowry and Patrick Patterson gave Toronto an 111-99 lead, their largest of the game to that point.
Cory Joseph of Pickering, Ont., chipped in 12 points on only eight shots for the Raptors, while long-limbed reserve Lucas Nogueira contributed eight points and nine rebounds in 19 valuable minutes.
The Raptors ended their longest homestand of the season with a 5-1 record, and they've won seven of their past eight.
For a team in the division cellar, Minnesota has actually been consistently competitive this season. They entered the Raptors game with only a -1.5 point differential on the season. Still, the Timberwolves came into the game having lost five of their last six, and their 26th-ranked defence must surely be a thorn in the side of taskmaster head coach Tom Thibodeau.
Wiggins' individual performance has mirrored that inconsistency. The 21-year-old entered Thursday's game averaging 22.2 points (buoyed by a newfound three-point shot), but his defensive intensity is fickle and he's still susceptible to the odd night of woeful shooting.
But in the bright lights of the Air Canada Centre, where the six-foot-eight forward received a nice round of applause during introductions, the Raptors certainly expected Wiggins to bring his best.
"Andrew is going to come back to Canada to make sure he shows what he can do in the spotlight and rightfully so," Raptors coach Dwane Casey predicted before the game.
Casey's intuition was spot-on, at least early. In the first quarter, a decisive Wiggins took advantage of a listless Raptors squad by outscoring Toronto's entire starting lineup with 11 points, including a 19-foot turnaround fadeaway jumper over countryman Joseph's outstretched fingertips and a blow-by baseline dunk that left Ross staring at the back of his jersey.
Still, DeMarre Carroll's persistent defence and foul trouble eventually slowed Wiggins, and he managed 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting the rest of the way.
Notes: DeRozan passed Morris Peterson to become the franchise's all-time leader in games played with 543, days after he passed the 10,000 career points mark.
