Momentum in sports is a funny thing. Sometimes it functions like a pendulum, taking a big initial swing one way, then definitively swinging back at an equivalent pace. Other times, it resembles a heart rate monitor, rapidly going back and forth, with no emergent direction.
In the case of the Toronto Raptors, who travelled to California’s capital to take on the Sacramento Kings, they played the part of a canny boxer unexpectedly knocked down in the first round. After absorbing the initial punch from the Kings, the Raptors rose back up, not hunting desperately for a haymaker of their own, but rather staying content just to work their way back in it.