Irving's buzzer-beater keeps the bad times rolling for Raptors

Eventually, things would have to break differently. Not that the Toronto Raptors' recent woes can be put down to bad luck, exactly, just that at some point, an old face would find their game, someone new would light a spark. The fog would lift just enough. 

Not yet. Not tonight. 

The Raptors have lost in all manner of ways in their current slide, which has reached four straight and seven of their last eight, but they haven’t lost a heartbreaker at the horn yet. 

Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets fixed that as the mercurial point guard hit a dagger over Fred VanVleet with time expiring for the 119-116 win. 

The Raptors fell to 13-16 as the Nets won their fifth straight and for the fourth time this season over Toronto, improving to 18-12 on the season. VanVleet scored 39 points for the second time in as many starts, and Scottie Barnes had 26 but the Raptors couldn’t contain Brooklyn who shot 60.5 per cent from the floor and got 28 points from Kevin Durant.

At the very least it was entertaining, with the fourth quarter full of ebbs and flows and the final minutes featuring enough lead changes and mini-dramas to make a novella.

It briefly looked like the Nets were going to run away with it, as an Irving triple over Barnes put Brooklyn up by eight midway through the fourth. But Barnes began to hone in on the rim and wouldn’t allow anything to stop him from getting there. He kept driving, kept finding his way to the bucket and the foul line. After Yuta Watanabe hit a corner three with 14 seconds left, set up by Irving to cap off a near-perfect night for the one-time Raptor – he was 6-of-7 from the floor, 3-of-4 from three and finished with 17 points in 21 minutes – the Nets led by two. But Barnes drove the lane again, drew a foul from Irving and made both free throws to tie – his ninth and 10^th freebies of the game.

It was the second strong outing by Barnes in a row after a poor weekend in consecutive losses to Orlando. It’s been an up-and-down season. Seeing him take over down the stretch and skip to the bench after blowing by Durant on one play in the fourth, well, it was like old times.

“He's a hell of a player,” said VanVleet of Barnes’ late takeover. “If we didn't know that already, you should know that now. He's a hell of a player. That's why everyone is so excited with him and why expectation is so high. And it's good for him. 

“There's going to be ups and downs, there's going to be challenges, but the magic is in making it through that and persevering and fighting through adversity, and he's done that. Again, I'm going to be there for him when he plays like [crap] shit, and you guys will write all your articles and talk about him, and I'll still be there putting my arm around him, and when he plays good, I'll try to find ways to help him play better. He's such a competitor and wants to win. When it's good it's great, and when it's not, not so much, but we've all been through it, and nobody's perfect.”

No, but on some nights it seems like Irving can come close, he’s that skilled and that fun to watch. He’s an odd, sometimes troubling figure off the court, but on it, he’s never been anything but a genius. He showed why as he drove hard into VanVleet after receiving the inbounds and stepped back behind the line to make his game-winning triple. The joyous mob around him formed in front of the Raptors' bench, who could only stare on, collectively stunned. 

“He’s the best in the world at that right there and we talked about some different things on how to get it done [defensively],” said VanVleet. “But he just – gotta shake his hands, salute him – it was a great move and unfortunately I was on the wrong end of it. We fought really hard, I was proud of the way that we fought and competed tonight. Give yourself a chance to win but obviously it don’t go your way.”

In fairness, it all might have been expected. The Raptors are wobbling and the Nets seemed like the last team you’d want to play when you’re struggling. Not only had Brooklyn won all three games against Toronto so far this season, but the Nets also arrived at Scotiabank Arena having won eight of their past nine and having moved up to fourth in the Eastern Conference. All of which seemed unlikely after a tumultuous off-season and a 2-5 start that cost Steve Nash his job. But talent is talent and the Nets are loaded with it. 

Only solution? Fight harder defensively. Play well enough in straight up coverage that an additional defender isn’t always necessary, or that they’re not rotating over to put out a fire. 

“The challenge for us right now is we have to do a little better job of not giving direct, straight-line drives to the rim,” said head coach Nick Nurse before the game. “It doesn’t really give your help a chance to get there. Keeping the ball in front, sitting down and guarding and at least making that so it’s not as direct line drives [there’s]  a lot of us who have to do a better job of guarding the ball.”

The Raptors showed some positive progress – they held the Nets to 19 points in the first quarter and 52 in the first half as Toronto led 62-52, driven by VanVleet's 25 points through two quarters, but even by then the defensive cracks that have plagued Toronto all too often began to show. The Raptors were missing O.G. Anunoby (hip) and were short starting guard Gary Trent Jr., who was a late scratch with quad tightness, but it doesn’t really seem to matter who is in their line up or not, they are too easy to score on. 

Toronto had more offensive rebounds (7-4), led the turnover category (15-9), shot a respectable 48.8 per cent from the floor, 9-of-24 from three and made 25 free throws to Brooklyn’s 18 – all very positive numbers. But the Nets also had nine threes and otherwise shot 60.5 per cent from the floor, which was too much for Toronto to overcome. Again. 

That and some late Irving magic.