The first chants of “Let’s go, Raptors” began with the opening tip, a full Air Canada Centre house in full throat anticipating one of the marquee games of the NBA season.

Coach Dwane Casey had called it “supreme competition,” while DeMar DeRozan had tabbed it a “true test” and the showdown with the Houston Rockets ramped up the intensity to near playoff-like levels.

Then it turned into a battle of two of the NBA’s best teams that lived up to the hype.

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In a delightfully entertaining contest, Toronto ended Houston’s 17-game winning streak by registering an exhausting and stirring 108-105 win against the NBA’s top team. It was Toronto’s seventh straight victory, raising their home record to a league-best 28-5 and giving them a season sweep of the Rockets.

James Harden, the presumptive MVP, wiped out what had been a 19-point Raptors lead with a three-pointer to tie the game with exactly two minutes left.

DeMar DeRozan put Toronto ahead before the Raptors got three straight stops, and Kyle Lowry put Toronto up four with two free throws with 10.7 seconds left. Eric Gordon’s deep three-pointer made it a one-point game, but Jonas Valanciunas extended it back to three with 5.4 seconds remaining. Harden missed a desperation three from about midcourt in a last-ditch shot.

“They stuck with the game plan,” Casey said of his team. “They trusted each other, they trusted what we were doing and stuck with it.

“Our big thing tonight was mental toughness. This team is going to score. They are a great scoring team and are one of the best I have seen in my many years in the NBA. You take away one thing and they figure out another thing. They keep moving out further and further. That shot Eric Gordon hit was almost at half-court, it seemed like. So my hat is off to our guys. I thought they did everything we asked them to do.”

Lowry had one of his best shooting nights of the season, drilling seven three-pointers as part of a 30-point night that included only 14 field-goal attempts. DeRozan finished with 23 for Toronto, while Harden had 40 for the Rockets.

“The game was lit, man. I hope you enjoyed it,” Harden said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t come out the way we wanted it to, but it was still good.”

With almost a quarter of the regular season remaining, the significance of Friday’s game was solely that it was a meeting between the conference leaders and two of the hottest teams in the league. Still, in a season filled with many mundane affairs just to be gotten through, the buzz wasn’t lost on the Raptors.

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“It’s a big game, don’t get me wrong,” Casey said after the win. “To break their streak, a great team’s streak, but again we’re on a mission. It’s one game, and if we go to New York (Sunday) and stub our toe, what are you going to say?

“It’s a marathon. It’s one game in the regular season. We lose it, OK, so what, we’ve got to get ready for New York. If we win it, we’ve got to get ready for New York. Feel good, I told the guys, until midnight, then get ready for New York.”

The Raptors measured up as well as any team has against the Rockets in their extended winning streak, building a lead as high as 19 in the first half. But Houston, held to just one made three-pointer in the entire first half, outscored Toronto 32-25 in the third quarter to get within eight to start the fourth.

“It’s one of them things where you can measure yourself at a higher standard when you’re playing against a great team in this league,” DeRozan said. “It’s one of them games … you get up for.”

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