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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - Only four of Golden State's 21 wins have been decided by five points or less and the Raptors are now responsible for two of them - a testament to the way in which Toronto has battled the undefeated, defending NBA champions this season, but you can understand why they might not see it that way on Saturday evening.

"Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," Dwane Casey said earlier that day.

For the second time in the span of nearly three weeks, Casey's club took the Warriors down to the wire, this time pulling within one in the final six seconds of play before the champs did what they've been doing all year long, closing out yet another victory and extending their historic start to the campaign.

The Raptors are beyond the point where moral victories should mean much of anything, something they understand and stressed following the 112-109 defeat.

"No, it's still a loss," said Kyle Lowry. "It’s tough when you had the opportunity to [beat them]. We were right there, but at the end of the day they won and we lost so you move on."

Lowry and Steph Curry, the reigning MVP, shared a moment of mutual respect at centre court just after the buzzer. For Curry, it was another night at the office. The Warriors' electrifying point guard scored 44 on 14-of-24 shooting, including 9-of-15 from three-point range. His free throws put Golden State up by three with seconds left and his steal on the subsequent possession sealed the victory. He was incredible, yet again.

However, Lowry went toe-to-toe with the league's best player and wasn't far off matching his efforts. This wasn't the first time we've seen the Raptors' all-star point guard put the team on his back, but he's never been better than he was Saturday, at least not statistically. Curry would register his seventh 40-point game of the season while Lowry, who finished with 44, accomplished that feat for the first time in his 10-year career.

"I mean yeah, but match [Curry]?," DeRozan asked. "Kyle is one of the best point guards in the league. I wouldn’t even say match. Every point guard in the league coming in here is trying to match [Kyle]. When he is doing things like that to carry us it just picks up everybody’s intensity."

"We knew coming in that it wouldn't be easy," said Warriors forward Draymond Green. "Kyle Lowry is the leader of that team and he's tough as nails, never backing down from anybody. It was something we expected, but it was definitely probably the closest one."

With Curry on fire out of the gate, hitting his first five shots, and after yet another slow start for the Raptors, they fell behind by as many as 13 early and, justifiably, it looked like it could be a long night. But thanks in large part to Lowry's heroics and timely production from emerging centre Lucas Nogueira, Toronto fought back and even took the lead for a brief stretch late in the game.

At that point it came down to execution and few do it better than Curry and the Warriors. Golden State's superstar point guard drilled a big pull-up triple to regain the lead in the final three minutes. DeRozan - who had a rough shooting night, going 5-for-19 from the field - missed a crucial free throw, as did Lowry. Then there was Cory Joseph's turnover, forced by Curry, on a frantic play that could have produced one last opportunity to tie and send the game to overtime.

"Yeah it’s tough," said DeRozan, who had 16 points. "Especially when the game came down to a couple of mistakes that we made. Missed free throws, turnover, missed rebound, you know, we would have had the game. But like I said, we've got to look at it and understand that is the best team in the league. We had them down to a last possession of both games. It shows us how good a team we can be and we just got to learn from it."

The Raptors had pulled within one with 38 seconds remaining in that first meeting on Nov. 17. Since then, they had defeated all four of the playoff teams they've faced, so seeing them play up to the level of their competition was nothing new. Still, the challenge for Casey and his club is to bottle this effort and the way in which they've played winning teams. It hasn't always translated against teams that they are expected to beat.

"I thought our effort was there," Casey said after the loss, Toronto's second straight. "But again, consistency. Just don't bring it tonight against Golden State, we've got to bring it Monday night and last week too. That's what we're building towards, that type of intensity, effort on each possession."

"That's why the NBA is so tough, each night there's a gunslinger coming to town. We can't just get up and get excited about Golden State, we've got to get excited about the Lakers, San Antonio, whoever else is coming in after that. Building that consistent focus to be a winning program and a winning organization."