It was a game they had no business winning until they had it won.
And then they had no business losing it until they did that too.
Perhaps that explains the frustrated cursing that could be heard emanating from the Toronto Raptors dressing room following their bizarre 90-89 loss to the Miami Heat at Air Canada Centre Tuesday.
Everything was lined up against a Raptors win. And they almost did anyway.
And then with an unlikely victory in their pocket – leading with 3.1 seconds to play – a confused defensive sequence allowed the Heat’s Wayne Ellington to score a layup just before the buzzer to end the Raptors’ home winning streak at 12 and drop their record to 28-11 and 14-2 at the ACC.
The circumstances weren’t in the Raptors’ favour which would have made the near-win that much more satisfying to kick off a three-game homestand in which they host LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday and Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors on Saturday.
Toronto was playing without Kyle Lowry, out indefinitely after bruising his tailbone in a wicked fall Monday night in Brooklyn and the Raptors were playing the first game at home after a road trip and on the second night of a back-to-back on top of that.
They’re excuses but they’re also honest factors in trying to defend home court against the surging Heat (23-17) who were resting in Toronto Monday night while Lowry was getting hurt against the Nets in overtime in Brooklyn.
DeMar DeRozan seemed to feel the weight of the fatigue Lowry’s absence. He shot just 3-of-13 in the first half and was 6-of-21 heading into the fourth quarter as the Raptors trailed by 10 at half and eight heading into the final frame. He led all scorers with 25, but needed 28 shots to get there.
It didn’t help the Raptors chances that midway through the third quarter Serge Ibaka got ejected for exchanging punches with the Heat’s James Johnson.
But the Raptors’ will to win is strong, as is DeRozan’s. Despite trailing by 12 late the third quarter, Toronto kept hovering around, holding the Heat to 40 per cent from the floor – good enough to win most nights.
But you have to score to win, and the Raptors were struggling without Lowry’s command.
Finally DeRozan, the Raptors’ scoring leader, shook off his early struggles to rip off nine points in last four minutes of the fourth quarter including baskets that gave Toronto a one-point lead with two minutes left and again with 3.1 seconds left.
It looked like it would be enough to steal a win at home facing some difficult circumstances.
But then the weirdness started. Leading by one with two minutes left the Raptors got a pair of stops and two golden opportunities to close the door on Miami. DeRozan kicked out to the struggling Norman Powell – getting some minutes in Lowry’s absence – who missed a wide-open three. The Raptors got the ball back, ran an inbounds play for Powell that got him a layup with 30 seconds left and he missed that too.
“It definitely is (frustrating),” said Powell who finished 2-of-8 and is shooting 29 per cent from three on the season. “I spend countless hours on my game knocking down shots, working on finishing around the basket every single day. I definitely thought the three I took was going in for sure and I don’t know what happened on the layup I feel like [the defender] slapped the backboard or something because it was perfect off the glass and it missed funny.
“You really never see misses like that.”
The Heat’s Goran Dragic scored on the next possession leaving the Raptors trailing by one with 20 seconds left.
Then DeRozan pulled out one more rabbit, tipping in his own missed layup with 3.1 seconds left, putting the Raptors back up by one.
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But even that wasn’t enough as Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby got confused covering the Heat’s inbounds play leaving Ellington a path to the basket for the game-winning layup.
Just like the Miami drew it up?
“No,” said Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra. “And that’s probably why Wayne was open. That’s probably the last thing anybody would think he would do is put the ball on the floor and try to attempt to go for a dunk, a game-winning dunk. You have to be lucky in this game as well.”
Or unlucky, depending on your locker room.
Raptors head coach Dwane Casey would argue the Raptors failed to make their own luck in the early going.
“We didn’t focus,” he said. “Back-to-back, it doesn’t matter; get in at three in the morning, doesn’t matter, nobody cares. I know Miami doesn’t care. We didn’t do the things – they had 20 offensive rebounds, we hold a team to 40 per cent and [lose]. Again, it’s attention to detail … again, hats off to Miami, we didn’t play well enough to win.”
The question going forward is can they play well enough to win – consistently – without Lowry who could be out for a while even if there was no structural damage after his fall in Brooklyn?
With a bruised tailbone and back spasms, it makes sense that it could easily be a week or more before he can play, although no timeline has been offered for his return.
The Raptors have fared well without Lowry in the past. As recently as last season they were 15-7 after the all-star break when Lowry had his season interrupted by wrist surgery.
And in Delon Wright they would certainly seem to have a capable alternative. The slithery third-year guard got the start and is one of the most productive bench players in the league averaging an impressive 15 points, five rebounds and 4.1 assists on 51 per cent shooting on a per/36 basis.
But early on nothing was clicking. DeRozan couldn’t attack the Heat paint without being surrounded – a formula other teams will be eager to replicate – and Wright couldn’t kick the Raptors into the kind of up-tempo, open-floor game that he leverages so well with the second unit, although he was solid enough with 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists in his 30 minutes. But the Raptors lacked any secondary offensive punch as they shot just 39 per cent from the floor and 7-of-21 from three.
The three-point shooting is something to watch because if teams can shrink the floor without Lowry’s threat from deep, it could mean more tough going for DeRozan, who almost let his frustration get the better of him in a near skirmish after the buzzer with Dragic that shouldn’t amount to anything other than a fine.
“I mean, the whole game is completely different without Kyle,” said DeRozan. “It’s everything. Everything. You can kind of tell with our ball movement wasn’t all the way there like it normally (would) be when Kyle’s out there.
“Like I said, he’s a general on the floor. He sees things when they need to be called.”
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