Well, it had it all. The second coming of Antonio Davis. The unexpected loss of Tim Duncan.
You even had Chris Bosh bobble-head night at the Air Canada Centre out of respect for the vastly improved forward who likely will be named to the National Basketball Association’s all-star team later today.
In short, everything was in place for a perfect night on the town for the Raptors, except for the fact the swaggering San Antonio Spurs were the opposition.
Even without Duncan, the former NBA most valuable player who was a late scratch with the flu, the Spurs were able to find a way to persevere — barely.
With Tony Parker, San Antonio’s delightful point guard, using his incredible quickness to mesmerize Toronto defenders, the Spurs blew a big lead in the fourth quarter but hung on to score a 125-118 overtime win against the Raptors last night.
Parker was at his whirling-dervish best, soaring for 32 points off 12 of 19 shots while adding 13 assists.
"If you have your best player out and you can figure out a way to get it done. . . it is pretty sweet," San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said.
Before a season-high gathering of 19,284, the Raptors played inspired basketball against the defending NBA champions, only to fritter it all away in the overtime with some dubious decisions. The win was San Antonio’s seventh straight.
Although he scored 18 of his game-high 36 points in the fourth quarter, allowing the Raptors to wipe out a 14-point San Antonio lead and send the game into overtime, a large finger of blame for the loss could be pointed at Raptors point guard Mike James.
James hoisted up a Rafer-Alston-like 28 shots to secure his points, but was 0-for-4 in overtime. His first two shots were misses from three-point range, and his last two were rejected near the rim — the first by Bruce Bowen and the second by Nazr Mohammed.
James wasn’t the only one struggling from the floor; the Raptors went 0-8 in the five-minute overtime and were outscored 11-4.
As the person responsible for directing the Raptors’ attack, James elected not to involve Bosh in the offence toward the end of regulation and in the overtime, where the young power forward attempted just one shot.
Bosh, expected to be named later today as a reserve for the Eastern Conference in the all-star game Feb. 19 in Houston, finished with 30 points and 14 rebounds.
"Theoretically, you wouldn’t want your point guard taking 28 shots, but you have to take them if they’re there," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said, choosing his words carefully. "And if he wouldn’t have taken those, we probably wouldn’t have been in the situation to get into overtime."
The ever-positive James had his own take.
"It’s about making plays," he said. "You got to make plays at the end of the game."
It was a game that provided tremendous entertainment as the Spurs carried a tenuous 82-76 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Raptors looked cooked after Michael Finley struck for consecutive three-pointers that increased San Antonio’s lead to 92-78 with just under 10 minutes left. But the Raptors engineered a riveting comeback sparked by James, who erupted for 29 of his game total over the second half.
It was a driving layup by James that cut the Spurs’ lead to 108-107 with just more than two minutes remaining that brought the ACC patrons to their feet pleading for more.
And Davis, playing in his first game since last week’s big trade with the New York Knicks, was only too happy to oblige, rising under the basket to tap in a loose ball with 26.2 seconds left.
Heading into the game, Mitchell had tried to deflect as much of the attention as possible away from Davis.
Meeting with reporters about an hour before game time, Mitchell refused to say whether he intended to slot the 37-year-old, in his second foray with the Raptors, into the starting lineup.
When the suspense was ended and Davis was introduced as the Raptors’ starting centre, the fans’ reaction was mostly positive, although a few dissenters could be heard above the din, voicing their displeasure.
Davis looked sluggish and finished with seven points and seven rebounds. His tip-in knotted the score at 114-114 to send the rollicking affair into a five-minute overtime session.
But the Raptors could not sustain the magic as the Spurs opened the extra frame on a 6-0 run, highlighted by a deep three-point basket by Finley. Toronto’s night was over.
The Raptors did well to outrebound San Antonio 39-32, although the Spurs shot a credible 59 per cent (49 of 83) from the floor. Toronto struggled from the free-throw line all game, hitting just 18 of 28, including four of eight in overtime.
With the game in overtime and the score deadlocked at 114-114, Davis stepped up to the free throw line for Toronto with a chance to provide the Raptors with the lead and critical early momentum. But he missed both shots.
"I’m disappointed by myself a little bit, but I’m always disappointed when we don’t win and I don’t play well," Davis said. "I just hate missing free throws."
