Never-say-die attitude has kept team in top spot

The game can look like it’s getting away from the Toronto Raptors on those nights when shots aren’t falling and the defence is a step slow, and the other guys are playing at or near their full potential.

But more often than not, that’s when a sense of calm and purpose seems to envelop the team, implied more than stated, and things often turn.

There is much to like and appreciate about the 26-10 NBA leaders. Resilience and maturity would be right near the top of any list.

“We’ve got a lot of guys on this team with character,” Fred VanVleet told reporters in Miami on Wednesday night.

VanVleet’s assessment came after yet another gutsy Toronto victory, this time a comeback from 17 points in arrears in the third quarter to beat the Miami Heat 106-104.

The Raptors could very well have slunk off into the night, taken the loss and started thinking about the next outing when the game seemed out of hand, but there seems to be something in the collective DNA that doesn’t allow that to happen. Instead of folding, they kept playing, narrowing the gap more and more with each passing minute, surviving the inevitable and expected replies from the Heat, and winning when Danny Green made a clutch three-pointer in the dying seconds.

It was a victory of which they were understandably proud.

“We’ve been here before,” said VanVleet, whose three secondhalf three-pointers played a huge part. “We’ve unfortunately worked ourselves into this situation a couple of times this year. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of experienced, veteran guys on the team, so we know that no lead is safe. You’re always in the game. You always have a chance to come back.

“You’ve got to try to change the momentum, try to keep fighting through whatever it is that got you down in the first place, just dig yourself out of the hole.”

In a perfect world, of course, the Raptors wouldn’t find themselves in such dire circumstances as they did Wednesday in Miami and on other occasions, notably a road rally from the same deficit in Memphis. But it is an imperfect world in which they live and play, and sometimes the other guys are just functioning at a high enough level to seemingly have Toronto buried. It is to Toronto’s credit that they stick with it, regardless of the inevitable ebbs and flows to games.

“We are trying to adopt that as a characteristic as a whole,” coach Nick Nurse said. “I think we’ve got some guys who are showing some leadership in those areas, of just taking each moment as it comes, handling the highs and lows and — most importantly, probably — just playing each game through. There are a lot of waves in these games sometimes and you just got to ride them, high or low, and just keep on playing.”

It helps tremendously to have players with the talents of a Kawhi Leonard or Kyle Lowry or VanVleet or Green to supply the firepower to come back from deep deficits — and know not to panic. “The good and bad thing about the NBA: It’s hard to keep leads, so when you’re up there’s always a threat of a team coming back, and when you’re down you’re never really out of it,” VanVleet told reporters in Miami. “You’ve just got to keep scratching and fighting and clawing, try to find a way to work ourselves back in there.”