As the Toronto Raptors try to keep the wheels on the road and their eyes on the horizon, nights like Wednesday help.
They are proof – reminders, really – that this is a team that has a couple of extra gears, that is comfortable being a little uncomfortable.
The hard facts don’t necessarily help. The Raptors went to Boston to face the Celtics, who are among a group of teams that they’ll be fighting for a playoff position with for the remainder of the season, and lost a game they should’ve won, 109-104.
They fumbled it away, really.
They shot just 14-of-25 from the free-throw line and only 8-of-31 from three. They allowed Celtics fourth-quarter maestro Isaiah Thomas to get lose for 19 of his 44 points in the final period. They missed wide-open shots that you need to hit to win games like these.
“We just didn’t execute,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry told reporters after the game. “You let their best player get 44 points, 19 in the fourth. It’s kind of hard to beat a team like that.”
But they fought. That’s been the Raptors’ defining trait over most of the past three years. It’s what enabled them to veer from being tank-bound to the Eastern Conference Finals in the space of 30 months, their laydown against the Washington Wizards in the 2015 playoffs the glaring exception.
So we shouldn’t be surprised. But as fights go this did seem to be of the kick-the-bouncer-in-the-shins variety going in. It seemed like a fight the Raptors were destined to lose.
They were without leading scorer DeMar DeRozan (ankle) and after being delayed by weather after beating New Orleans at home on Tuesday night and not getting to their Boston hotel until nearly 3 a.m. they were without proper rest either. And they were touch-and-go to beat the Pelicans in overtime, which was just their second win in eight games. Lowry had already given 45 minutes. Patrick Patterson, on a minutes restriction, had blown through it with 35.
The Celtics were off on Tuesday night and had won four straight. It was completely reasonable to expect the Raptors to get run out of the building.
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And yet there they were, up 11 at the half and by as many as 16 in the third quarter. They got vital minutes from Jared Sullinger, who the Raptors signed as a free agent when Boston decided to throw $113-million at Al Horford. Sullinger has been a non-factor as he struggled to find form after missing two months following foot surgery in training camp but suddenly gave some signs of why the Raptors’ brain trust thought he could be a nice little find on a one-year, $6-million deal.
They envisioned him making space in the paint for rebounds and forcing opposition guards to take the long way around his screens. They hoped he could step out and hit jumpers – maybe even threes – and ease their spacing issues on a team where DeRozan does so much work inside the three-point line.
For the first time in six games Sullinger laid it all out there: the wide body that wins rebounding battles; the brick wall screens. He finished the first half with 11 of his 13 points, including a triple from well outside the three-point line.
More encouraging? He believes that he’s not close to proper form. On a Raptors team desperate for frontcourt depth and with the trade deadline looming, progress from Sullinger can only help Raptors president Masai Ujiri in his decision making.
“The stat sheet might say so, but I don’t think so,” Sullinger told reporters in Boston when asked if he’s getting closer to full speed. “I’m still lost out there.”
But the Raptors may have found a little something. Even though their slump keeps extending they flashed lots of positive signs. Holding the Celtics to 41 per cent shooting on the night is one of them.
Some things will have to be fixed. In perhaps the game’s most damning sequence Thomas tortured Raptors backup point guard Cory Joseph for nine straight points midway through the fourth after a Lowry triple had put Toronto up eight, 94-86, with 6:22 to play. Thomas’ 9-0 run in the space of less than two minutes gave Boston a 95-94 lead with 4:35 left.
There was plenty of back-and-forth after that. Lowry hit a deep three with 2:35 left that put the Raptors up one but missed a chance to extend the lead when he failed to convert two free throw thirty seconds later. The Raptors lost track of Thomas at the three-point line with 48 seconds left and he made them pay, giving Boston a two-point lead. A great sequence where Lowry found Lucas Nogueira rolling to the basket who in turn found a wide-open Patterson in the corner for a three went for naught when Patterson missed what could have been a game winner.
That was the Raptors’ last, best chance.
Now they head to Orlando Friday and then Brooklyn on Sunday in a strange place, looking up at Boston, trying to hold off the likes of Atlanta and Washington closing fast from below.
But they can at least take comfort in knowing they can play hard enough to get the job done. Their effort the past two nights proved that.
“We got to keep going, keep scrapping,” Casey said after the game in Boston. “I like our grit, we got to stay together. We held this team to 41 per cent [from the floor] we shot 52 per cent, we won the rebounding, so some of those things will carry over for us.”
