Whoops, Raptors did it again
Another late collapse leads to gut-wrenching OT loss to Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA— Dwane Casey calls them “basketball plays,” basic fundamental plays that take commitment and intelligence and effort.
Nothing flashy, just solid work, and that the Raptors can’t seem to make them at crucial times far too often will be the eulogy of this season.
They were at it again here Friday night, unable to close out a game by doing one of the simplest things imaginable — inbound the basketball — in a soul-sapping 108-101 overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Raptors once again disintegrated mentally and were unable to execute one of the most basic plays in the dying seconds of a close game.
Twice they were unable to successfully inbound the basketball in the front court, first being forced into using their final timeout before a five-second violation and then committing a turnover after calling that timeout.
On the first play, DeMar DeRozan was trying to get the ball in, but couldn’t; on the second it was Jose Calderon, and he tossed a soft pass that Alan Anderson couldn’t grab along the sidelines.
That final turnover allowed the Sixers to tie it with 1.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter when Jrue Holiday went around a screen and found a basically clear path to the basket.
The game still had the extra five minutes to go; but it was all but over after that mentally draining hiccup.
“That’s one play we work on a lot, we’ve executed it a couple of times and won games with it or closed out games,” said coach Casey.
“Those are the things we have to do. Should I have had someone else in there doing it? I thought we had our best group in there to come and meet the ball.
“When you’re in big time situations, you have to do whatever you have to do — catch, claw, to get open.” Calderon was in the game in the final seconds after sitting for most of the second half. The Raptors got off to a terrific start with a 17-point lead at halftime, and Calderon and Landry Fields were taken out far earlier than usual. Calderon didn’t get back in until the final 10 seconds, Kyle Lowry went almost the entire second half and overtime. “It wasn’t anything that Jose didn’t do right,” said the coach “He got us off to a good start; Kyle, I thought, had a good rhythm going with that second unit and was in attack mode. It’s nothing Jose did, I just thought it was a better match- up for Kyle in that situation.
“It’s a team effort, a team game. It’s not one or two guys, it’s the guys that are on the court, they have to do their jobs, execute, do their jobs … all the simple things we talk about each and every day, and we didn’t do it down the stretch when it counted.”
Lowry finished with 11 assists, but needed 11 shots to get his 11 points.
Holiday had a brilliant game for the Sixers with 33 points and 14 assists — and all 12 of Philadelphia’s overtime points.
Lost a bit amid the last-second failings was the fact the Raptors blew a lead that reached19 points at one time in the first half and was 17 points at halftime. It’s the second 19-point lead they’ve blown in as many games on a losing streak that’s now reached four games.
“They turned up the intensity,” Casey said of the Sixers’ 29-13 third quarter blitz. “We took the fight to them in the first half and we knew they were going to throw some haymakers in the second half.
“I told the guys at halftime, ‘you’ve got to get ready for a street fight,’ and they brought the street fight to us, and it got us back on our heels.”