Sportart » Thursday game preview: Toronto Raptors at San Antonio Spurs

The San Antonio Spurs(San Antonio Spurs championship rings) have been playing their best basketball of the season of late, winning 10 of their past 13 games after a sluggish start where they were acclimating to eight new players. But all that success will be on the backburner Thursday, when the Toronto Raptors pay a visit to the Alamo City and the AT&T Center for the only time in the regular season campaign.

That's because former Spurs star forward Kawhi Leonard will be making his first trip back to town after being traded to the Raptors in the offseason. It remains to be seen how the San Antonio fans will treat Leonard, who missed all but nine games of the 2017-18 season with a quad injury and then actively lobbied for a trade away from the team that drafted him. But coach Gregg Popovich wasn't too interested in discussing Leonard on Wednesday.

"You move on in life," Popovich told reporters. "We're not going to redo what's happened in the past in any way, shape or form. It's of no consequence at this point, and it does no good to go backward and talk about this, that or the other." Leonard indicated he was looking forward to the contest when asked by a television reporter after Tuesday's win over the Utah Jazz.

"Yeah, it's going to be fun," Leonard said during the interview. "Everybody is anticipating the game(nba championship rings). Things like that will only get me better for the long run. It's going to be a good game." The Spurs (21-17) will square off with Toronto after coming from behind to beat another of the Eastern Conference's heavyweights -- the Boston Celtics -- 120-111 at home on Monday. San Antonio got 32 points from LaMarcus Aldridge in the victory and a career-high 22 points from Derrick White, but they needed a 46-point third quarter and a stern "cussing out" by Popovich at halftime to leapfrog into the lead after shooting 22 percent in the first period.

"We were playing really tentative, real indecisive, hesitating, wasn't being aggressive," said Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan, who had 13 points and 10 assists in the win. "The whole dynamic of us, our aggression, changed. We just got out (in the second half) and played like we've been playing." The Spurs canned 14 of their 26 3-pointers in the win, with forward Davis Bertans going 5 for 8 from beyond the arc while scoring 17 points.

DeRozan, along with center Jakob Poeltl, were moved to the Spurs from Toronto in the trade that sent Leonard to the Raptors. DeRozan, after some early reservations about the trade, has settled in to become one of San Antonio's key players. "It's emotional, for sure," Aldridge said of Thursday's game and Leonard's return. "I know it is definitely not another game, for sure. Give me some popcorn, I just want to watch it. But I might have to play." Leonard leads the Raptors (28-11) into San Antonio after scoring a career-high 45 points on Tuesday in Toronto's 122-116 home win over Utah. Leonard has now scored 30 or more points in 11 games this season, including three of the last five.

"That's good, we all got to witness that live and in person," Toronto coach Nick Nurse said of Leonard's performance. "He was phenomenal. I've kind of been waiting for one of these nights where he makes them all." Pascal Siakam had a career-best 28 points with 10 rebounds, while Norman Powell scored a season-high 14 points, as the Raptors captured their fourth straight at home. Toronto played without All-Star guard Kyle Lowry (who didn't play for the eighth time in nine games because of a sore back) and center Jonas Valanciunas (dislocated left thumb) but still managed to score a franchise-high 44 points in the third quarter.

"I try to stay in the moment and keep competing every possession and not worry about myself, just try to get a team win," Leonard said afterward his scoring outburst.The Spurs and Raptors split the season series 1-1 in 2017-18. San Antonio owns a 32-12 all-time mark against Toronto(championship rings) including a 18-4 record and nine-straight wins at home.