Even in defeat, Raptors make a statement
The result is almost secondary to the fun, the drama and the no-quit game the Raptors played at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night.
They may have ultimately lost127-125 to the defending champion Golden State Warriors, and there may be no such thing as a moral victory in big-time sports, but the Raptors left feeling at least pretty good about themselves.
Less than 48 hours after demolishing the Cleveland Cavaliers on a night of giddiness at the Air Canada Centre, the Raptors almost tracked down the Warriors, coming back from a 27-point hole to lose in the final 20 seconds.
A Kevin Durant basket, the end of a 25-point night, gave Golden State its final three-point bulge and the Raptors never got a solid chance to tie.
They lost a chance on a missed threepointer with about 11 seconds left and, after controlling a jump ball, lost the ball out of bounds to lose their final chance.
But with fully half the season still to go, the Raptors are proving themselves capable of competing with the best teams in the league with a combination of athleticism and speed and a penchant for playing hard.
And coach Dwane Casey’s constant preaching that there is still a crying need for improvement in every aspect of the Raptors’ game will continue.
“They know what they’re going to do, you know what they’re going to do, now you’ve got to stop it,” he said Saturday morning of the defending champion Warriors. “Whether it’s on the moon, (Golden State’s home arena) Oracle or the Air Canada Centre, it doesn’t matter, they’re going to do the same thing.
“You know as a team, as a unit, what you need to do to try and stop it but then you’ve got to go out and execute it.”
The Raptors didn’t for about three quarters.
The Warriors scored 43 points the first quarter, their most productive first quarter of the season. They ended up with 81 points in the first half, their most productive half of the season.
That’s when the Raptors came to life, carving that 27-point deficit to one on a DeMar DeRozan putback of his own miss with 63 seconds left. DeRozan finished with 42 points.
It was Golden State’s 12th straight win on the road, an NBA best so far this season and pushed them to 19-3 overall away from Oracle.
Golden State got Stephen Curry back from a three-game absence due to a sprained ankle but he had a minimal impact on the game, scoring 24 points in 34 minutes.
“Just their championship DNA, I think, is something that’s really important when you’re on the road,” Casey said before the dismantling. “Most of all, they’ve been together for years. There’s nothing new. They’re doing a lot of the same offensive sets they’ve ran for years, the defensive schemes.
“A lot of this stuff, the chemistry’s just there. One guy can sit out a couple of games and come back in, like Steph, and not miss a beat.”
The Warriors have now beaten the Raptors seven straight times, including four in a row in Toronto.
Coming off a win Friday in Milwaukee and headed to Cleveland for an NBA final rematch on Monday, the game in Toronto could have been a legitimate trap game for Golden State.
But if some saw it as a measuring stick for Toronto, Kerr saw something of the same thing from his angle.
“It’s fun to play a team in the other conference that you know has a chance to be there in the end,” he said before the game.