There were technical fouls and flagrants, punishing screens and physical scrambles for rebounds, intensity and toughness, everyone going at each other hammer and tong.
Just another game? Not so much.
Even with their most prolific scorer laid low by a flu bug, the Toronto Raptors gave no quarter, and the Cleveland Cavaliers were at their intense best in a delightfully tough regular-season outing at an energized Air Canada Centre on Friday night.
The Raptors’ Kyle Lowry owned this night.
Lowry’s basket with 3.8 seconds left — giving him a career-high 43 points on the night — lifted the Raptors to an improbable 99-97 victory over the Cavaliers on a night the team may truly have come of age.