Another close call, another Raptors loss
Golden State pushes record season start to 21-0 in overcoming Lowry’s 41-point effort for Toronto
TORONTO — It wasn’t the “almost” the Raptors talked about after once again coming within a hair of knocking off the undefeated Golden State Warriors.
It was the “reasons” they didn’t. And from the head coach to the coleaders of this team in Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, the take away wasn’t a pat on the back for being close, but a reminder of what they need to do to get over the hump.
Again, it was a few small things down the stretch that were the difference between being the streak stoppers and just the 21st victim in a streak that shows no signs of ending.
The Golden State Warriors extended that season-opening streak to 21 victories with a much-deserved 112109 nail-biter over a Raptors team that fought tooth and nail to the very end in front of a frenzied sellout crowd at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday.
The difference in the two outcomes was minute.
A couple of missed free throws down the stretch — one each by Lowry and DeRozan — a turnover at the end that cost them their final shot at forcing overtime and a missed rebound late in the game were basically what stood between a huge upset and just another loss.
“To beat a great team like that, you can’t have any ‘Oh crap’ moments and we had a couple of those,” head coach Dwane Casey said. “You can’t have those with that group.”
As one would expect, any talk of a moral victory in the Raptors lockerroom after the game was met with empty looks or head shakes. This team is past the point of being good enough to stay in a game. They want results.
“Yeah, it’s tough, especially when the game came down to a couple of mistakes that we made,” DeRozan said. “Missed free throws, turnover, missed rebound. You know, we would have had the game. But like I said, we got to look at it and understand that is the best team in the league. We had them down to a last possession of both games. It shows us how good a team we can be and we just got to learn from it.”
The Raptors lost a five-point game in mid-November out in Oakland to the Warriors, but as DeRozan points out, both games were there for the taking.
But multiple mistakes late in both games cost them. And against this team, you don’t get away with multiple mistakes.
“It’s super small. It’s tiny,” Lowry said of the margin for error. “The way they shoot the ball, the way they move the ball and the way Draymond (Green) plays, they are the champs. Simple as that.”
Lowry had a career night, going off for 41 points. Against any other team it would have been enough, but Steph Curry managed to better Lowry’s stellar night.
Curry had 44, not a surprise given he torments the Raptors more than any other team in the NBA, in leading the Warriors to that 21st consecutive win to start this season.
“You got to give him all the credit,” DeRozan said. “He’s a hell of a player. He makes it look so effortless and now with all the confidence he has and what he is able to do, you have to give him credit. As a fan of the game, it’s definitely exciting to see.”
Just not so exciting when you happen to be on the receiving end.
The Warriors, though, despite taking two from the Raptors, leave with a healthy level of respect for this club.
Green, whose line on the night of 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists barely scrapes the surface of his contributions to this win, was pointed in his praise.
“We knew coming in that it wouldn’t be easy,” Green said after the game. “Kyle Lowry is the leader of that team and he’s tough as nails, never backing down from anybody. It was something we expected, but it was definitely probably the closest one (we played).”