TORONTO — It was hard to know what to think.
The Nuggets were shooting the lights out. No, not just for them — for any team. Jumpers were falling left and right, and the Nuggets didn’t just settle for those. They pounded the ball into the paint as much as possible too.
But these were the Nuggets, so bracing for the inevitable fall also was a proper course of action. It had happened every time on this road trip, whether it was being on the wrong side of Chicago’s game-deciding 12-2 run in the fourth quarter or Dallas’ 25-5 third quarter.
And so everyone just watched.
And watched.
But the fall never came.
There were some nervous moments in the end, but the Nuggets finally took care of business start to finish, and got exactly what they deserved: a 106-105 victory over the Toronto Raptors to stop an eight-game losing streak.
“Anytime you have an eight-game losing streak it’s not fun,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “I think a lot of us were miserable, especially those that hate to lose like myself and a lot of our players.”
Their victory, over one of the NBA’s best teams, was their first on this five-game road trip, and validated the good will they walked out of Chicago with the night before.
There, they took their first real steps toward getting back into the win column. All of the issues that held them back were taken care of, but Chicago’s big front line of Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol and Taj Gibson created one more: rebounding.
The Nuggets took care of that against the Raptors. Rebounding was not a issue. Turnovers were not an issue. A bad third quarter was not an issue.
At their best, the Nuggets built an 18-point lead.
The Raptors cut that lead to two points with 5:24 left in the fourth quarter, but Malone did something shrewd — he stayed with an all-veteran lineup of Jameer Nelson, Randy Foye, Will Barton, Danilo Gallinari and Darrell Arthur to right the ship and see the Nuggets through.
Because, some nights, like those when you’re trying to snap a long losing streak, development has to take a back seat to getting a win.
“In my gut I knew it was going to be a close game and went with the guys that have played in those big games before,” Malone said.
That quintet responded with six consecutive points to give the Nuggets some breathing room, pushing their advantage back up to eight with 3:43 left to play.
And then they gave the young talent watching one of their best lessons of the season: How to stay poised in the face of a raucous crowd and a team desperate to rally, to execute in the face of intense pressure, and win anyway when the odds are against you.
The Raptors got it to three points with the ball and 21 seconds left, but Foye got a defensive stop on Raptors guard Kyle Lowry and then hit two free throws to salt the game away.
Lesson given. Time will tell if the young players were taking notes.
Barton came off the bench to score a team-high 22 points. Gallinari added 21 points. Arthur finished with 19 points and six rebounds. Joffrey Lauvergne added 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
DeMar DeRozan scored 34 points to lead Toronto.
“It’s a big relief,” Barton said. “I told the guys before the game we never should have been on an eight-game losing streak. It was a great relief to finally end the losing streak, and we got the monkey off our back.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or @dempseypost
