It would have been totally understandable for Toronto to have taken a snooze against the Hawks. Within the span of a TV episode, four of the Raptors’ pals got dealt away from the team on Thursday afternoon. Who wouldn’t be distracted? Making that crisp defensive rotation seems less important when your friends spent the day being human Boggle boards. On top of all that, Toronto’s best player was out with a sore knee. Could you have blamed the Raptors if they’d packed it in after Atlanta hit 7-of-9 threes in the opening quarter?
Sometimes, though, one of these extreme circumstance games inspires something special from the slim collection of lads you have on hand.