CLEVELAND - As the old saying goes, if you play with fire, youre going to get burned. Dwane Casey, who has used the phrase as a cautionary tale after lethargic starts of the recent past, came just short of saying I told you so Tuesday evening. His team had been getting away with it, far more often than any team should. Yes, theyre a resilient bunch and that was the case again in Cleveland as they clawed back from a 21-point deficit - even taking a brief fourth-quarter lead - but its been masking the underlying issue. Theyre an open-faced sandwich, missing the top bun. "You cant play in this league that way and expect to come back each and every night," Casey said after Torontos 102-100 loss to the Cavaliers. "Its bit us more than weve won, it feels like." "Until we fix that, among us, among ourselves, then its going to be an uphill battle every night." For the second time in three days, the Raptors trailed by nine after the first quarter, allowing another team with a losing record, also missing their best player, to shoot above 52 per cent to open the game. The start was eerily similar to Sundays, at home to Atlanta, lacking effort, focus and purpose on both ends of the floor. Even without injured point guard Kyrie Irving, Cleveland killed the visiting Raptors with speed and precision, exposing a reoccurring hole in their interior defence by darting into the paint at will. The comeback was inevitable. Its what they do. Down by 21 early in the third, Toronto staged a 21-9 run to close out the quarter. Kyle Lowry - running back and forth from the locker room all night, battling an upset stomach - scored half of his team-high 22 points in the frame. Greivis Vasquez would give the Raptors their first lead since the opening minutes, draining a three-pointer midway through the fourth before reality set in. "I think everybodys energy was low from having to come back," Lowry said. From that moment on they hit just one of their final 10 shots and on the last possession, down only two, they failed to even get one off. It was a play they had just run with success. Amir Johnson was looking for Lowry to turn the corner, but he was cut off. Instead, Vasquez took the handoff and, trying to spin right, towards the bucket, he lost his footing. "It was me going to my weak hand and I lost my balance, stepped kind of weird," said Vasquez, who scored 16 points of Torontos bench. "I turned the ball over. Ill take responsibility. Im not going to run away. Im a man." A noble gesture but, as Casey pointed out, its not the reason for the loss. "Thats not the game-decider," the Raptors coach said. "The game was decided the way we approached the first quarter." "Its easy to get up for OKC, its easy to get up for Miami, its easy to get up for Indiana but the teams that are not in the playoff picture, they are playing for something, too," he continued. "Theyre playing for pride, which is probably a little bit more dangerous than guys trying to save minutes and save themselves for the playoffs." Theres a lesson to be learned from this loss and it shouldnt take long to figure out whether or not its been absorbed. The Raptors - now the Easts fourth seed, leapfrogged by the Bulls with Tuesdays defeat - will travel to Boston in the second night of a back-to-back and first game of a home-and-home set with the Celtics, another scrappy team looking to play spoiler. "Weve got to get the mindset of being the hunter instead of the hunted because," Casey added. "Thats how we got where we are, being a desperate team, a hungry team and not believing the press clippings or where we are in the standings." Birthday blues Although Lowry would have preferred to celebrate his 28th birthday with a win, the Raptors point guard recorded his 18th double-double with 10 assists to go along with his 22 points. Lowry extended his career-high streak of 19 or more points to 10 games and also became the first Raptor to score 20-plus in eight straight since Chris Bosh did so in 2010. Amir passes VC on blocks list With his third-quarter swat on Spencer Hawes, Johnson recorded his 416th block as a member of the Raptors, passing Vince Carter for second on the teams all-time block shots list. Johnson, who had 12 points and nine rebounds on Tuesday, still has a ways to go to catch Bosh, topping the franchise list with 600 blocks. Patterson nearing a return Patrick Patterson, who has missed 10 straight games with an ulnar collateral sprain in his right elbow, was reassessed on Monday and is headlong well, the team revealed before Tuesdays game in Cleveland. Although hes been cleared for contact, theres still no timetable for his return to game action. "Its a lot up to the medical staff and when they feel he can go," Casey said. "Its one of those things where if he gets hit in the wrong way it could be trouble for a lot longer so thats why they want to make sure its well enough." The stat The Raptors fell just short of matching their largest comeback of the season. They last overcame a 21-point deficit in their home win over Dallas on Jan. 22. Toronto hasnt had multiple wins in which theyve trailed by 20 or more points in the same season since 2004-05. The quote "Weve just got to understand what were playing for," Vasquez said. "Weve got a big one tomorrow [in Boston]. Its a must-win because were actually playing for something. If you dont get up for that youve got to get your gas up. Weve just got to be motivated, man. This is crunch time. This is important for us. Tomorrows a must-win, no matter what. No excuses." Swell Bottiglie . McCutchen was cut before the series opener against Seattle on Monday night, when Lewis was set for his first start for Texas since July 18, 2012. Texas selected Lewis contract from Triple-A Round Rock. Swell Bottle Italia .Y. -- As if the worst start in franchise history isnt bad enough, Buffalo Sabres President Ted Black braced his teams win-starved fans for potentially more tough times. http://www.swellbottiglie.it/ . Watch all the action unfold live on TSN and TSN Mobile TV at 7:30pm et/4:30pm pt. You can also watch the game live with the debut of Wednesday Night Hockey on TSN.ca and chat throughout the game with TSN. Swell Offered Italia . PAUL, Minn. Swell Italia Offerte . Louis Blues have returned to the top spot in the TSN.ADELBODEN, Switzerland - Felix Neureuther overcame a big first-run deficit to win a World Cup giant slalom on Saturday for his second straight victory in 2014 as the Sochi Olympics approaches. The German was only seventh fastest in the morning, but benefited from fading sunshine in the afternoon to finish 0.10 seconds ahead of first-run leader Thomas Fanara of France. Marcel Hirscher of Austria was third, 0.19 behind Neureuthers combined time of 2 minutes, 34.60 seconds. World champion Ted Ligety of the United States, who was sitting third, skied out when poised to take the lead after being rocked by a rutted bump midway down. Neureuthers victory was just the second for Germany in mens giant slalom in 47 years of World Cup racing, and reduced team director Wolfgang Maier to tears in the finish area. "Its just unbelievable," said Neureuther, who matched Max Riegers win in March 1973 at Mont Saint-Anne, Canada. "It makes me very proud." The victory was even more surprising in an era of GS domination by Ligety, Hirscher and Alexis Pinturault of France, who placed fourth Saturday. That trio shared the last 14 World Cup victories dating to February 2012. "To tell the truth, I never thought in my career I would win a GS," said the 29-year-old Neureuther, whose seventh World Cup successs followed his slalom triumph on Monday in Bormio, Italy.dddddddddddd Ligety, who won this race last year, had little chance to recover after being launched toward a gate as he prepared to make a turn. "It is definitely a kick in the groin," said Ligety, who dropped to third behind Hirscher in his defence of the World Cup discipline title. Hirscher earned 60 race points and now leads Pinturault by 75 in the GS standings. Four-time winner Ligety trails by 120 with three races remaining. "Its very positive for me about the standings," said Hirscher, adding that Ligetys bad luck was "a shocking moment." Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway placed 12th and retained his lead in the overall World Cup standings, 77 points ahead of two-time defending champion Hirscher. A typically large and raucous crowd of 29,500 lining the Kuonisbaergli course had only one Swiss racer to cheer in the second run. Carlo Janka, the Olympic champion in giant slalom, finished 20th, 2.24 behind Neureuther. Bode Miller of the U.S. skied out midway down the first run when he lost balance in the softening snow with temperatures at 6 C (43 F). The Adelboden meeting, which featured in the very first week of World Cup racing, concludes Sunday with a slalom. Neureuther and Hirscher will be the favourites. ' ' '
