Three weeks ago, when the Red Claws had a glut of guards, they traded Davion Berry to Raptors 905.
Sunday night he returned to the Portland Expo and dropped 28 points on his old team as Toronto’s NBA D-League affiliate beat Maine 114-110 in overtime before a sellout crowd of 2,717.
“It felt good,” Berry said. “It felt like home.”
The Claws lost their third straight since losing forward Coty Clarke and point guard Tim Frazier to the NBA. After overcoming a 12-point halftime deficit, they built a 13-point lead early in the fourth quarter and led 105-96 with 3 minutes, 43 seconds remaining.
Toronto held Maine scoreless the rest of regulation, forcing three turnovers and twice converting offensive rebounds to make it 105-all and even had a chance to win in regulation, but Berry missed a jumper from the top of the key.
“I guess the positives are that we corrected some things in the third quarter and showed that we were capable of playing defense,” said Red Claws Coach Scott Morrison.
“But the frustrating thing was that in the fourth quarter we seemed to forget what we did well.”
Malcolm Miller’s dunk off an Omari Johnson miss gave Maine a brief lead in overtime. Shannon Scott hit a tying jumper and Mike Kyser flushed a Berry miss to make it 109-107. After a Miller drive rimmed out, Berry attacked the basket, drew contact and banked in a half-hook to put the Raptors up 111-107 with 29 seconds left.
Levi Randolph managed a 3-pointer with 19 seconds left to cut the margin to one. After Scott Suggs sank two free throws to make it 113-110, the Claws had one last chance to tie but Randolph’s corner 3 with five seconds left rimmed out.
Randolph finished with 25 points. Johnson and Marcus Thornton each added 19.
“We should have capitalized, but it got away from us,” said Johnson, who had scored the first nine points of the third quarter to pull Maine back into contention after trailing by as many as 14 in the first half.
The Red Claws outscored Toronto 39-16 in the third quarter and seemed to have the game well in hand, particularly considering the visitors played in Toronto on Saturday night and woke up at 4:30 a.m. in order to catch an early flight to Boston.
“We got in Boston around 8, drove here, slept and got ready for the game,” Berry said.
“At first, honestly, I just wanted to play the game. But you know, when the juices get going and the guys are chattering back and forth, that’s when you’ve got to get it going.”
Toronto wound up with a 66-41 rebounding advantage, including 22-8 on the offensive glass.
“That’s really the reason they won the game, was their effort,” Morrison said. “We’ve been trying to teach these guys how to win, and what it takes to win. We haven’t really been applying those lessons in the last week or two.”
Berry joined Toronto on March 4, a few days after he was photographed holding one of two basketballs for Maine’s official team photo that was distributed to fans after Sunday’s game, in order to collect autographs of the Red Claws, all of whom stayed around to sign.
“These last three games we probably could have used him,” Morrison said. “But that’s the way it goes with the D-League. You lose your two best players in one week and you have to figure out a way to win without them.”
The Red Claws have four games left in the regular season to solve that particular riddle.
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