TORONTO — On Tuesday night at the Scotiabank Arena, the Toronto Raptors crashed against a rising tide and got swept away, 107-95, like the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors before them.

It’s a rare sight in the regular season, especially in an age in which free agency, midseason player movement and the speculation it creates has never figured larger: a championship contender playing at the height of its power.

On the same night the Warriors suffered their worst home loss in the Steve Kerr era at the hands of the Celtics — the NBA’s most combustible contender — Houston topped Toronto for its sixth straight victory. The Rockets looked optimized, dominant, consistent — a well-oiled machine in a league full of teams that have mutilated themselves in search of a more viable present and a slingshot at a dominant future.

They are now tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Portland Trail Blazers for the third seed in the West. “A whole lot of games left. Can't pay attention to it. We've just got to stay focused on how we're playing,” Chris Paul said. “We've been saying that since early in the season since we were, what, 11-14? And we was the Bad News Bears everybody was talking about.” But the Rockets never lost the plot, and now, they’re rolling while their rivals are unraveling.

James Harden (13) snags a defensive board ahead of Raptors forward Pascal Siakam on Tuesday night. (Getty Images) More

They ran roughshod over the new-look Raptors, who traded for Marc Gasol and added Jeremy Lin at the trade deadline, for all but a 34-14 third quarter that had the fingerprints of Toronto’s starters all over it: Kawhi Leonard bruising up mismatches in the post, Pascal Siakam smothering Paul and zipping impossible transition looks to Danny Green for three, and Kyle Lowry hitting the hardwood. The Raptors flashed their best shot, a sign of what they could be, in one fell blow.

The Rockets’ steady machinery absorbed it, clawing back against a spate of tricky coverages that held Paul and James Harden to 7-of-30 shooting until the start of the fourth quarter. When Harden failed to split traps, role players like Eric Gordon and Austin Rivers were sharp and aggressive, while center Clint Capela hunted openings for second-chance points. They switched and muscled the Raptors off their spots — especially Lowry — finishing with 23 fast-break points off 13 shots. “Once we get stops and get out in transition,” Paul said, “we’re dangerous.”

The Raptors’ problems started when they opened the second quarter by staggering Lowry with a bench unit that was borderline unplayable. Lin and Norman Powell missed open threes and dribbled into the void. Patrick McCaw — whose rotation minutes have thus far been chalked up as a forgivable coaching quirk — had to be a viable gap-filler. After a timeout, despite the long runway, Lowry couldn’t pick up a head of steam off a high pick-and-roll with Gasol, throwing a wild pass right into Rivers’ hands.

Lowry, conjuring playoff nightmares, couldn’t match Houston’s physicality. So after Toronto’s third-quarter run, coach Nick Nurse tried Siakam in Lowry’s place. Siakam is, to the present’s dismay and the future’s delight, becoming a more reliable high pick-and-roll practitioner than Lowry, with raw speed and a spin cycle that counters overzealous defenders. But the Rockets used P.J. Tucker to match his speed, and Siakam is still learning to trick defenders he can’t out-quick. In a critical play late in the fourth, Siakam pump-faked from the corner, drove, tried to spin Tucker off his base, turned and airballed a short jumper.

“The bench did a terrific job,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Nene, Gerald [Green], Austin — they really got us a big lead in the second, and steadied the ship in the third and fourth.”

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