They blew the last offensive play that won them the game, gave up more than a few open shots, and waltzed through a moribund second quarter.
But when the losses are mounting and the pressure is growing and you need to find a way out of the darkness, a win no matter how it’s achieved is like a ray of rejuvenating spring sunshine.
The Toronto Raptors weren’t perfect Tuesday night, far from it, but they found a way to win a game. And with the way things have been going, that’s a welcome result.
“Don’t get too happy after wins, don’t get too down after losses because it’s a journey,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said after Toronto squeezed out a 108-106 overtime victory over the New Orleans Pelicans at the Air Canada Centre.
“Again, there was some good stuff we can take out of this, some stuff we’ve got to correct to go forward. I don’t get a sense of relief after anything.”
That’s true for a coach who is always striving for improvement. But for a team that had lost six of seven games while dropping to third in the conference — and coming precariously close to fourth or fifth — and on another night without the injured DeMar DeRozan, there had to be some sense that a cloud was at least temporarily lifted.
“I think it was really big. I think it shows how we can play,” said Norman Powell, whose locked-in defence on Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday changed the tenor of the game in the second half. “Now we just need to carry that over into the game (Wednesday in Boston) and focus on locking that in for the start of the first half, not just the second.”
Kyle Lowry made a hotly contested, clutch jump shot with 4.3 seconds left in overtime — part of a 33-point, 10-assist gem — Jonas Valanciunas had 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Powell energized the Raptors with 18 points.
But even that Lowry shot, Betgram as dramatic as it was, was hardly the most well-executed play of the night. There was a bit of confusion, some dubious spacing and a lot of angst before Lowry got moving left to drill the game-winner right in front of the Pelicans bench.
“There’s a lot of things we’ve got to clean up,” Casey said. “Execution down the stretch, who’s supposed to screen, who’s supposed to go where, we got discombobulated. Usually, DeMar’s in there, we didn’t execute the play properly but those things happen. Those are things we can correct and make sure we get them right.”
DeRozan originally sprained his right ankle in a Jan. 22 loss to the Phoenix Suns and sat out three games. He returned to play 36 minutes Sunday in a loss to the Orlando Magic but experienced some swelling after that game.
He sat out Tuesday’s game and will not play in Boston in a key Atlantic Division game Wednesday.
“He had a little swelling after the game on Sunday night, so they pulled the plug and told him to take it easy — not take it easy but rehab, get it worked on these next couple days,” Casey said before the game.
Holiday led New Orleans with 30 points and Buddy Hield had 15, but Anthony Davis was just 4-for-18 from the field.
“It wasn’t beautiful, it wasn’t pretty but I thought the second half we took the challenge defensively on Holiday,” Casey said. “I thought Jonas did an excellent job in the second half of rim protection.”
The question now is the toll the game will take on the next one. Lowry played nearly 45 minutes, Patrick Patterson was about 10 minutes over his limit in playing nearly 35, Casey said, and they will be without DeRozan again.
“We’ll talk about that, most likely on the plane or in the morning,” Patterson said of any possible restrictions in the Celtics game.
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