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TORONTO - Inbounding the ball from behind the basket with 2.7 seconds left on the shot clock, at least there would have been if they were working, Nets guard Shaun Livingston found veteran and future Hall of Famer Paul Pierce in the corner. "One," counted down Raptors public address announcer Herbie Kuhn - filling in for the busted shot clock - over the Air Canada Centre speakers as Pierce stepped back and drained a 19-foot dagger to put Brooklyn up by eight. The Raptors had led by one a couple minutes earlier until Pierce went on a fourth-quarter rampage, scoring nine straight points to put the game out of reach in the dying minutes. This was precisely what Dwane Casey and his club feared most, whether they cared to admit it or not. "I thought we played a little bit as expected as it is our first playoff game," Casey said after a 94-87 loss to open the Raptors first playoff series in six years. "I thought we took ourselves out." They had battled their own inexperience, working through an early and understandable case of playoff jitters, they contended with spotty officiating and even navigated around an arena malfunction that knocked both shot clocks out of commission for most of the second half. For all their shortcomings on a Saturday afternoon they cant be particularly proud of, the game was in reach until the final few minutes, winning time. Thats when experience comes into play, more so than any other moment, any other game situation. The Nets have it, the Raptors dont and its something you cant simulate or prepare for. "You just get that feeling," said Pierce, who has played in more postseason games - now 137 - than anyone on the Nets roster. "[Ive] been in those situations a number of times. I dont get rattled in the fourth quarter, down the stretch, in playoff settings. Ive been in pretty much every playoff setting that you can imagine so I just try to stay calm." Torontos leading scorer had no such luck. Making his playoff debut, DeMar DeRozan didnt knock down his first field goal until late in the third quarter after missing his first eight shots. After the game he sat in front of his locker, dejected, disappointed, frustrated. Hes a student of the game and has studied playoff basketball but finally he understood what its like to live it, to experience it first hand. "Its not rocket science," he had said Thursday. No, but its a lot harder than it looks. "I just missed shots," DeRozan maintained, but it was more than that. "They overplayed him," said Kyle Lowry. "They really denied him the ball. Weve got to find ways to screen him and get him more looks, get him open a little bit sooner and quicker and get him to his sweet spots." At this time of year theres a learning curve, and the quicker DeRozan picks it up the better off the Raptors will be. If the playoffs are indeed about mental over physical strength, as Chuck Hayes so eloquently put it Friday, no one does it better than Pierce and the wily Kevin Garnett. "I grew up watching this guy," 27-year-old Greivis Vasquez said of Pierce, nine years his senior. "I went to his basketball camp, Nike camp, back in the day, imagine playing against him right now. Hes still doing it." Nothing could faze Pierce with the game in the balance, none of the Raptors multiple defenders - some bigger, some smaller and quicker - not even the hostile reception he got from Torontos electric, sellout crowd. Draped in white, the ACC was buzzing for nearly three hours in support of the home team, making things - or at least trying to - challenging for the visiting Nets. "The atmosphere of the crowd, the intensity, the noise, we need that every night," said Lowry, who finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in his first playoff game since 2009. "I can tell you that the Brooklyn Nets were saying speak up, we cant hear, its loud in here. It definitely affected them a little bit." "Paul, the truth is youre old, ugly and slow," one fan, sitting behind the Nets bench, yelled at Pierce. Moments after enacting his revenge, in the form of a nine-point fourth quarter, Pierce threw his headband into the stands, only to have it tossed back it him. The Nets forward tossed it to another fan, and back it came again. "Third time was the charm," he joked after the game. "I really feed off the emotions of the crowd, especially on the road," said Pierce. "Its fun when you get to go on the road and beat a team. I think its more gratifying than winning at home. I love those moments." Ultimately that was the difference in Game 1. The Raptors shot 39 per cent, committed 19 turnovers and got little-to-no contribution from three of their starters, but those final minutes - the moment Brooklyn embraced, the moment Toronto seemed petrified of - is what really did them in. As Casey wisely pointed out, this series is a long way from over. DeRozan, like his young teammates, is a sponge. He and the rest of his team will watch film, theyll study and if they learn from their mistakes and evolve in those crucial moments of this most crucial time of the year theyll be ready to throw the next punch at the ACC for Tuesdays Game 2. "Believe me, this is nowhere near disappointing," Casey said. "We are a young team and we won the division. Were third in the conference. Were going to fight our butts off to win this series. This does not identify us as far as who we are if we dont come out on top. This is one game. The series is not over." Carrying the load While DeRozan and sophomore Terrence Ross struggled in their playoff debuts, 21-year-old Jonas Valanciunas looked like a polished veteran, utilizing his size and strength advantage to get Toronto going early in the game and dominate the boards throughout. "Ill tell you what, I thought Jonas played big time," Casey said of his young centre. "He really did. He grew up today and that was huge for us." With 17 points and 18 rebounds - the most by any Raptor in the postseason - the sophomore became the second player in franchise history to record a double-double in his first playoff game. Shot clock malfunction Early in the third quarter, the shot and game clocks above both baskets went blank, causing a short delay. After about five minutes, play resumed but in place of the two clocks - still powerless - Kuhn, with the use of a timer, called out time markers over the PA on each possession. "It was awkward," Vasquez said, playing without shot clocks for the remainder of the game. One flickered on directly after the final buzzer sounded. "It reminds me of back in the day when we used to play with the shot clock in the corner." "It was definitely tough because youre so used to looking up, being able to see the time," DeRozan added. "It was tough but we just tried to help each other." Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment issued a post-game statement explaining the incident. "We experienced a signal path failure," the MLSE release read. "Our backup system for the temporary shot clocked relied on the same source. New cables will be run tonight and tomorrow to ensure no issues arise on Tuesday and the NBA will inspect both the fixed and backup systems before Game 2." The stat There have been 453 best of seven series in the NBA, going into this season, and the winner of Game 1 has moved on 77 per cent of the time. The quote(s) "Guys, I used the wrong choice of words out there," said Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri, conducting a brief press conference at halftime to apologize for using profanity in an attempt to fire up the crowd, speaking to hundreds of fans outside the ACC before the game. "I apologize to the kids out there. Nothing against [the Nets], just trying to get the fans going. You guys know how I feel. I dont like them, but I apologize." "Well I feel the same way so, and Ive got his back," Vasquez said after the game, coming to the defence of Ujiri. "Hes part of the family. Thats all Ive got to say. Hes our guy and were going to go fight for him no matter what. We dont like any of them either. Thats how we feel. All of us." Roman Burki Jersey . So it was understandable if he was a little shaky early in his return to the Texas Rangers rotation. He spent most of the outing searching for his best stuff, but still managed to shut down the struggling Minnesota Twins offence. Roman Weidenfeller Jersey .J. -- The New York Jets have promoted Tony Sparano Jr. http://www.dortmundfcfanshop.com/c-49-ma...und-jersey.aspx. "Back in 2011, when they announced that the game was coming here, we knew that it was going to be pretty important that we had a good year and hopefully could get into it, let alone win it, so I felt some pressure obviously within for sure," Taman said Monday, less than 24 hours after the Riders won the championship. Dominik Reimann Jersey . - Considering where Jeff Gordon was after Richmond, left out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship in part due to some late-race shenanigans, he couldnt have been happier on Sunday. Eric Oelschlagel Jersey . The Heat centre scored 10 of his 30 points early in the first quarter to silence the Toronto fans as Miami defeated the Raptors 113-101 on Friday night.WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin took aim with little resistance, and the Washington Capitals staged an improbable comeback. Ovechkin scored four goals, including the equalizer with 32.4 seconds left in regulation, and the Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-5 in a shootout Tuesday night. Washington trailed 3-0 with 12 minutes elapsed, 4-2 in the second period and 5-4 for much of the third period before rallying for its fifth win in six games. "Even when they got their fourth goal, I still thought, we can do this," Capitals coach Adam Oates said. "And then they got another one, and the guys believed. You dont want to get to this position too many times because its not going to be easy to pull a rabbit out of your hat." When Ovechkin is on his game, perhaps anything is possible. "We just felt we could come back and win," he said. Ovechkin increased his NHL-leading total to 26 goals and became Washingtons career leader in power-play goals, scoring twice with the extra man to pass Peter Bondra, who had 137. "What took you so long?" Bondra said with a grin during a pre-recorded interview displayed on the scoreboard. Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and four assists, and Troy Brouwer beat Tampa Bay goalie Ben Bishop in the fifth round of the shootout to provide the Capitals with their only lead. "Weve had a few of these games where weve had to come from behind, maybe not in such dramatic fashion, but we came in here after the first (period) and we thought it would be a great story if we could pull it out," Brouwer said. Martin St. Louis and Tyler Johnson each had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who lost their sixth straight at Washington. "He didnt even have to work for his goals," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said of Ovechkin. "He didnt move on the first one, he didnt move on the last two at all. If youre going to let that guy take shots, well, this is sometimes going to happen.dddddddddddd Thats the disappointing part." Ondrej Palat scored on a wrist shot between the circles after taking Johnsons centring pass from behind the net to put Tampa Bay up 5-4 at 8:36 of the third period. It appeared that would hold up until Ovechkin scored from the left circle after Washington pulled goalie Philipp Grubauer. "Hes a pure sniper," Oates said. "The fourth goal, with the ice conditions at that time, the length of the pass, the weight on the pass, thats an incredible shot. Thats why hes a superstar." Washington trailed 4-2 when Tampa Bays Richard Panik received a 5-minute major for boarding at 16:31 of the second period. Panik rudely sent Karl Alzner into the side boards, and soon after Alzner headed to the locker room for treatment, Washington went to work. Ovechkin scored 7 seconds into the penalty and added a wrist shot from the left circle at 18:48 to tie it. An instant after the red light flipped on behind the goal, fans showered the ice with hats. "This is a game we should have won," St. Louis said. "We just couldnt close it." Early on, it seemed unlikely the Capitals would even make it close. Washington defenceman Mike Green was called for four penalties during the first period and had a 10-minute misconduct tacked to the ledger, all of which helped Tampa Bay get off to a torrid start. St. Louis and Nikita Kucherov scored power-play goals and Nate Thompson converted a 2-on-1 rush with J.T. Brown to make it 3-0 and chase goalie Braden Holtby. NOTES: Tampa Bay C Steven Stamkos missed his 13th consecutive game with a broken right leg. ... It was the third game in which Washington scored at least three power-play goals. The Capitals have 18 power-play goals in their last 19 games. ... Bishop came in with a 1.98 goals-against average. 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