BOSTON—Dwane Casey knew it would be hard, terribly hard, for the Toronto Raptors to summon that extra ounce of energy you need to win close NBA games.
They’d been through a grinder of game a night earlier, a physically and mentally exhausting overtime win at home, and all that waited was a good and rested team in a tough building with a lot to prove.
And as hard as the Raptors played, when it came to crunch time, they just didn’t have enough.
Fading in the final four minutes of an intense emotional game, the Raptors dropped a 109-104 decision to the Boston Celtics that dropped Toronto closer to fourth place than second in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.
The game devolved into a delightful fourth-quarter matchup between two of the best crunch-time scorers in the league.
The Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas, the most prolific fourth-quarter scorer in the game, and Kyle Lowry, who is third, basically put on a game of What-you-can-do, I-can-do-better.
Thomas went on a personal 9-0 run to bring Boston all the way back from an 18-point hole and give them a lead with about three minutes to go, while Lowry answered every big shot with one of his own.
Serenaded by chants of M-V-P, Thomas finished with 44 points — 19 in the final 10 minutes of the game — while Lowry scored 12 of his 32 points in the final 12 minutes.
Thomas’s three-pointer with 48 seconds left put the Celtics up by two and Patrick Patterson missed an open-corner three that would have given Toronto a lead.
The Raptors forced two misses on the ensuing possession but couldn’t corral a defensive rebound on the second.
The Celtics won a jump ball, Thomas made two free throws and a Patterson three made it a one-point game with 3.9 seconds left. Then the tiny Celtics guard iced the game by making one of his last two foul shots, and the Raptors never got off a final shot.
Toronto was once again without all-star guard DeMar Derozan, still bothered by a sore right ankle, and his absence was compounded by a series of circumstances that resulted in some unique looks and moments.
A confluence of a need to keep Patrick Patterson’s minutes under control and foul trouble for both Valanciunas and Lucas Nogueira forced Casey to go deep down the bench in the first half.
Jakob Poeltl played for the first time since Jan. 20, and he got more than nine minutes in the first half with Valanciunas picking up three fouls and Nogueira getting two.
Poeltl had three offensive rebounds and four points in his brief stint.
Casey also dusted off Jared Sullinger after leaving him on the bench for two of Toronto’s last three games.
Sullinger, booed lustily by fans who cheered him mainly during four seasons in Boston, responded with a season-best 11 points in 10 first-half minutes.
He’s still labouring to get into shape, a point Casey made before the game.
“He still has some work to do, but it’s not like he’s light years away,” the coach said. “He’s getting there, putting in extra time after practice, off days, after games so I’m really impressed with the way he is working.”
Despite going so deep down the bench and missing key players, the Raptors played one of their best defensive halves in weeks to open the game, holding Boston to 37 per cent shooting in the opening two quarters and taking an 11-point lead at the break.
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