Coming into game three Friday night the Raptors needed everything to try and cut the series lead in half. They needed their top players to start scoring the basketball like they have in the past. As a collective group they needed to turn up their defensive intensity. Everything that had gone wrong in game one and two needed to go right in game three.

Coming into the game the Raptors were vulnerable. They were like a boxer getting back up after taking a direct punch to the side of the head. Trying to figure out how to turn the match in their favour the Raptors took punches and dished some out themselves. In the end the Wizards got the final blow, knocking the Raptors out cold.

Losing game three to the Wizards 106-99 left the Raptors flat on their back. The referees count has reached nine on the Raptors season as they trail in the series three games to none. No team has ever comeback after losing the first three games. No one see’s the Raptors being the first team to do so, either.

Then again, the Raptors aren’t the team that will stay down. If the Wizards want to avoid customs, like Paul Pierce has insisted, he and his teammates will need to throw one more punch at a Raptors team that can barely stand on their own two feet.

The opening quarter of game three was the exact offensive start Toronto wanted. Getting off to a 35-33 start, with 20 of those 35 points coming from DeMar DeRozan. His teammate Kyle Lowry, who came into the game dealing with a multitude of injuries and a reported sickness looked better than he had in the first two games. Even Terrence Ross was a factor in the first quarter.

But like the other two games the second quarter continued to be a struggle for the Raptors. DeRozan only scored 2-points as he went cold from the field. He went onto to score 32-points for the game, the third time he’s scored 30 or more in a playoff game.

Raptors as a team were held to 13-points in the second frame, as the Wizards took a 44-38 lead at halftime. It was the Raptors who continued to take small jabs at the Wizards as the lead got cut to two following the third.

As the Wizards have all series long they threw out the bigger punches. Every time the Raptors got close the Wizards took every momentum away. There were times the Raptors took the lead, but could never sustain it. Pierce and Otto Porter both hit three pointers that seemed to close the door on the Raptors in the fourth quarter. At times when everyone thought it was over and everyone was preparing for game four the Raptors continued to crawl back up.

At the forty-second mark in the fourth the Wizards lead was six. Lowry, who had another terrible day at the office shooting 5/22 from the field hit his first three since the first quarter. Again, however, Pierce took the final swing at the Raptors by draining a triple that put the game officially out of reach.

Now, heading into game four Sunday it seems the Raptors should just stay down. Winning four in a row has never been done and a team that has barely looked as though they belong in the playoffs all series does not seem like a candidate to create history.

In a boxing match when a fighter looks beaten and unable to compete the referee has the ability to step in and end the fight. Sadly, in basketball the referees can’t do so and the Raptors will have to compete come Sunday. Even if the Raptors win game four and send the series back to Toronto they could just be wasting everyone’s time.

The whole world is counting the Raptors out. History is counting the Raptors out. The Raptors are the only one’s that still believe and game four will be a test. All season long the Raptors have been like boxers. Every time they seemed to be down, they got back up. Guys like Lowry, Amir Johnson and the roster as a whole have been looked at as bulldogs. It’s a group that won’t lay down for anyone.

The series is over, at least that’s what history says. But if the Raptors are the true bulldog fighters we’ve known them to be, they will not roll over and get swept. There’s to much pride and determination on this roster that if there’s a moment to leave it all on the court, game four is that moment for the Raptors.