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TORONTO - As over 20,000 shell-shocked Raptors fans finally exhaled, juggling their emotions after a bizarre evening at the Air Canada Centre, Dwane Casey laced into his team in a nearby locker room. His post-game pep talk will "remain in-house", which usually means it was R-rated in nature. Did this feel like a win, Amir Johnson was asked after it was all said and done. "Of course," he exclaimed, taking issue with the question. "What? Yes! Did I check the box score wrong? We definitely won." "Does it feel like a win? What?" The box score read 115-113, a pivotal win for the Raptors, who took a 3-2 series lead Wednesday and now sit on the cusp of advancing to the Conference Semifinals, but you wouldnt know if from taking in the head coachs post-game discourse. "You wouldnt want to hear it," Casey said, asked about his emotions as his team squandered a 26-point lead in allowing the Nets to score 44 during a fourth-quarter collapse that was very nearly fatal. "We just didnt play smart. They are a very veteran team, they are going to take advantage of the mistakes you make. We wrote the book on the mistakes in the fourth quarter." "Every mistake that you could think about, we made in the fourth quarter." Just about. The Raptors lead was 22 going into the final frame before their previously spotless performance began to unravel in a hurry. With a lineup of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and reserves Andray Blatche, Mirza Teletovic and Alan Anderson for all but eight seconds in the quarter, the Nets hit 13 of their 21 shots, including five of nine attempts from three-point range. They got into the paint and to the line at will, putting on a clinic offensively. Veterans Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett did not play a second. With just over three minutes remaining, Torontos nightmare became reality. The sellout crowd that had rocked the building all night, the mob of white-shirted Raptor zealots that shouted "Broooook-lyn" minutes earlier - mimicking a chant made famous at Nets home games - they went dead silent. The Nets Johnson drained a three to tie the game and Toronto was on the ropes. Visions of their franchise-worst 27-point collapse in a December loss to Golden State flashed through everyones mind. Infamous Raptors losses of the oh-so-painful past, the beloved Maple Leafs and their tragic Game 7 demise. The city has seen it all. So how would this team let them down? Toronto led by five with nine seconds left, a semi-comfortable scenario provided they refrain from doing something uncommonly foolish. Just dont give up a three or commit a foul. Naturally, they did both. As Williams swung the ball to Anderson in the corner, the Raptors Johnson lunged at him, committing his sixth foul and surrendering the rare four-point play, Brooklyns second of the quarter. With six second to go, the Raptors now up by three, Casey opted to play it safe and send Blatche to the line for two shots. The right call. Intentionally missing the second free throw, Blatche was able to secure his own rebound before letting the Raptors off the hook in tossing the ball away. "We cant live that way," said an irate Casey after the game. "We cant make this many mental mistakes." Buzzer sounds and the Raptors win. The Raptors win? They had mucked it up in just about every way you could imagine, like a greatest hits of Raptor blunders, but they pulled it out. If that seems out of character with what weve come to expect from this franchise, so be it. Isnt that just the perfect representation of a season, an improbably playoff run that defies all semblance of logic? "We made some boneheaded mistakes," Johnson admitted, "but we finished off the game and thats all that really matters." This is a different team producing different results and a point guard who has a lot to do with that change in fortune. "Honestly, hes a hell of player, man," DeMar DeRozan said of Kyle Lowry, who scored 36 points, a playoff career-high, also matching the most hes ever scored in an NBA game. "Hes just a dog. He makes you want to bring your A-game every single night because you know hes going to lay it out there with them." With DeRozan blanketed by multiple defenders all night, Lowry took over. Tied with a minute left, Lowry hit the biggest shot of the night, a step-back three-pointer, followed by another dagger from inside the paint on the subsequent possession. "Sometimes it calls for that situation," said the point guard. "Usually its [DeRozan] doing that but tonight the way they played him it gave me an opportunity to get to the basket and get some shots off down the stretch. Our teammates count on me and him to make the right decisions, make the big plays and tonight it was fortunate enough they were guarding him tightly and I got it going a little bit." Lowry wouldnt let his team lose, willing them to their most important victory of the campaign, and no one seems the least bit surprised, nor should they. "Every time hes out there on the floor Im going to give it my best effort," DeRozan added, "because I know hes going to do the same." "We know theres not going to be no big blowouts either way because both teams are going to fight until the end," he continued. "It just shows you how much weve matured over the season and understanding what we have to do to stay in games and closeout games." DeRozan became the first Raptors player to reach the 20-point plateau in four straight playoff games since Vince Carter in 2001, scoring 23 on Wednesday thanks in large part to another impressive showing from the free throw line, where he was 12-for-13. For the first time in nearly 13 years that Raptors have taken the advantage in a playoff series, now they look to close it out in Brooklyn on Friday. "Were happy we won today but weve got to do a better job Friday," said Jonas Valanciunas, who had 16 points and six rebounds Wednesday. "Were here, were excited about being in the playofffs, somewhere we havent been before, a young team, expecting mistakes," Casey said. "Weve got to crack the whip and learn from it. This is a hell of a time to start learning, going into Game 6 of the playoffs." Cheap Soccer Jerseys Authentic . A night later, he was back to help lead a rout of the Detroit Pistons. John Wall had 20 points and 11 assists, and Beal scored 10 of his 15 points during the second quarter as Washington pulled away for a 106-82 victory on Saturday. Cheap Soccer Jerseys . -- Arizona pitcher Bronson Arroyo is expected to miss a week to 10 days because of a back injury. https://www.soccerjerseyschina.us/ . The Gatineau Olympiques head coach will lead Canada in its quest to end its gold medal drought at the 2015 world junior hockey championship held in Montreal and Toronto at the end of this year. Replica Soccer Jerseys . "Theyve been good against everybody," he said. Carlos Gomez launched a three-run homer and Matt Garza battled into the seventh inning for his first win in four starts to help the Brewers continue their mastery of the Rockies with a 7-4 victory Saturday. Stitched Soccer Jerseys . The Marlies surrendered two power-play goals and failed to score on six man-advantage opportunities en route to a 4-1 defeat in American Hockey League action on Saturday.Each week, The Reporters put their thumbs out to the good and the bad in the world of sports. This week, they discuss the departure of Donald Sterling, the scheduling of the Rogers Cup, the value of Commonwealth Games and the mastery of Clayton Kershaw. Bruce Arthur, Toronto Star My thumb is up to the impending departure of Donald Sterling from the NBA, pending appeals. A California judge ruled this week that Sterlings wife Shelley could indeed sell the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion, which means its almost time to say goodbye to Donald Sterling, only 33 years too late. Donald Sterling: ex-Clippers owner, denier of cancer treatment benefits, architect of a franchise that finished over .500 five times during his tenure, settler of the biggest federal housing discrimination suit in American history, and of course, racist. It will be sad that hes getting richer, yes. But the glory of the punishment is this: the Clippers are finally good. They could win a title, they really could. And if they do, Donald Sterling will finally be the one whos been evicted from the building. Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun My thumb is down to the Rogers Cups, yeah, both of them, the best tennis tournaments in Canada, for not having the ability or the opportunity to exist separately. For years they did, quite nicely. One week, the men played in Toronto or Montreal, the next week, the women played in the other city. It was perfect, in a tennis kind of way. Since then Canada has changed. There is a breakout star in Genie Bouchard, who set all kinds of national records, television and otherwise from Wimbledon. There is a hard serving, knocking on the door breakout star in Milos Raonic. Forgive me if I want to watch both of them separately. We deserve that, they deserve that. Its time somebody stood up to the tennis woorld and got this right.dddddddddddd Cathal Kelly, The Globe and Mail My thumb is up to all games in their proper place. Weve just come through two weeks of the Commonwealth variety, which gave us another chance to wring our hands about why no one cares. Odds are you tuned in for the delightfully kitschy opening ceremonies and then tuned right back out. A British paper reported that Usain Bolt declared the competition "a bit (crap)," though he apparently used another word. Hes right. Its a second-rate event. The Pan-Am games in Toronto next summer will also be minor league, and thats okay. There can only be one Olympics. Its past time we stopped thinking of sport as something that must be force-fed to the masses for their own good. People will watch what they want. There will always be an audience for something that features the spirit of the Olympics without the stars. Because without the warm-up act, we wouldnt be able to properly appreciate the uniqueness of the really big show. Dave Hodge, TSN Not that he needs me or anybody else to remind the baseball world how good he is, but "thumbs up" anyway to LA Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, the left-handed ace who didnt get traded on Thursday. All the attention paid to Jon Lester and David Price was fully warranted, but later that night, Kershaw was running his record to 13-2 and lowering his MLB-best ERA to 1.71. The Dodgers are unbeaten in his last 11 starts, 10 of them wins for Kershaw personally and this latest victory, 2-1 over the Atlanta Braves, was his second straight complete game. It also saw him come within an out of a second straight shutout. The Dodgers being the Dodgers, they looked at Lester and Price, but they have prospects they werent willing to touch and they have Clayton Kershaw. ' ' '