PHOENIX—They had a chance because they gave themselves a chance by playing hard and playing smart, and not getting down and going away when things got tough.
That’s all you can really ask of a Raptors team playing its third game in four nights in the middle of the longest road trip of the season.
That they couldn’t finish it off wasn’t due to lack of effort. It was just one of those games where the Phoenix Suns made a couple more plays down the stretch to take a 114-106 victory.
With all five Toronto starters in double figures — and most looking near exhaustion in the dying couple of minutes — the Raptors rallied from a big first-half deficit Monday night before falling late.