Raps show fight in loss to Hawks

There are no moral victories in the NBA, no reason to feel good about
oneself in the wake of a loss, no matter how it was achieved, no matter
how painful.

The Raptors will lament their latest setback for about one day, but
for one night they didn’t look the part of a team that has struggled to
play at a high level.

If not for a clutch Mike Bibby three-ball, if not for a questionable
play sequence that featured a Jose Calderon drive to the basket with Al
Horford draped all over the point guard, Wednesday night’s 104-101 loss
to the Atlanta Hawks could have been much different.

Andrea Bargnani had a decent look at the buzzer, but his
three-pointer hit front iron, a margin that pretty much summed up the
night.

So close and yet so far away.

The Raptors were right there, but they couldn’t make the right plays
down the stretch, which included a Bibby three when he came off a screen
on an inbound play that ultimately proved to be the decisive bucket and
the game’s defining moment.

As much as Calderon groused about his non-call, he did lose possession of the ball when Horford got his hands up.

After a review of the play, it was deemed, correctly, that the ball went off Calderon and possession was awarded to Atlanta.

“We can second-guess this thing right through,’’ head coach Jay Triano said.

As in, should the Raptors have had the ball in Leandro Barbosa’s hands with the chance to win instead of Calderon’s?

In late-game sequences off an inbound play, teams will switch, which is what Atlanta did, having Horford defend Calderon.

Calderon is quicker than the bigger Horford, but the way Barbosa had
it going on this night, almost matching Jamal Crawford, it would have
been wiser had the Brazilian Blur and not the Spaniard had possession.

“I though it was a foul,’’ Barbosa said of Calderon’s foray to the
hole. “I didn’t understand the call and they gave the ball to them.”

Calderon tried to draw a foul by leaning into Horford, who played it perfectly by simply getting his hands up.

All night, as in most nights, Toronto’s opponent was getting the
benefit of the call, a trend the Raptors thought would change when a
game was there to be won.

Instead, a game was lost when it appeared a win would be produced.

“We knew they were going to switch,’’ Triano said. “We knew
(Calderon) would have a bigger guy on him and usually you use your
quickness to get by him.

“At that point we thought we might have a call against them. You have to attack the big guy and we couldn’t do it.”

Had they paid better attention to details, closed out the first and
second quarters with greater efficiency, perhaps the Raptors could have
avoided the late-game dramatics, which didn’t seem to upset the sparse
gathering.

“My players were indicating that the ball did go off them,’’ Hawks
head coach Larry Drew said of the Horford-Calderon sequence. “I was
actually preparing to defend on that end because I didn’t see what
happened.”

What was surprising about Wednesday’s visit was how resilient the
Raptors were in refusing to acquiesce against a team Toronto does not
match up well.

Whether it’s at the point, shooting guard or any frontcourt position, one through five the Hawks had the edge.

But it was the Raptors who brought an edge seldom seen before when these two teams have played in the past.

When they last ventured into the ACC back in late November, the Raptors were booed off their home floor in a blowout loss.

When it appeared a repeat would unfold Wednesday night, especially in
the first half, the Raptors showed fight, forcing misses when stops
were required and making baskets that kept the homeside within striking
distance of their more acclaimed visitors.

Basketball’s little things become more magnified when leads are able
to get extended, when a visiting opponent mounts a run that threatens to
turn the game one-sided.

For the Raptors, it was their reluctance to box out, which yielded
second-chance opportunities and points, taking quick shots early in the
shot clock, not finishing a quarter the right way and committing a foul
on a shooter.

Add it all up and it resulted in a 60-55 lead by the Hawks at the
break, a number that could have easily been in Toronto’s favour had it
paid closer attention to the game’s finer details of the game.

In most circumstances, it’s the players who get singled out when comebacks are made, when the game’s momentum begins to shift.

On this night, though, the Raptors’ coaching staff deserves a lot of
praise at their halftime adjustments, deciding to go with a zone.

In the end, the Raptors came up short.