Dwane Casey’s spot as an NBA all-star game head coach is on hold until at least Sunday.

And while Ricky Rubio will be seen as the villain after his late three-pointer led the Utah Jazz to a 97-93 win over the Raptors on Friday night, Casey points to a time much earlier that the game was lost.

“Everyone concentrates on the end part of the game. We started the game out in mud,” Casey said after Toronto fell to 17-4 at the Air Canada Centre, leaving him still needing one win before a Feb. 4 cutoff to earn the all-star spot.

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“That set the tone for us for the rest of the night. Our approach to start the first quarter started our problems for the night. We always concentrate on that part (end of game), but we did not come out with the right approach, right mentality, right physicality to start the game. And then after that we were climbing uphill the rest of the game.”

After Rubio’s three-pointer with 4.8 seconds left, the Raptors missed a chance to tie when DeMar DeRozan missed a baseline jumper with 1.1 seconds to go, and the Jazz sealed the game at the free-throw line.

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But to Casey, a 30-24 deficit the Raptors found themselves in after the first quarter was more telling.

“(We) never got the game under control,” Casey said. “They did a good job of scratching and clawing, making everything tough on us. We didn’t shoot the ball worth a crap (and) when we did get to the free-throw line we missed some of those.

“It was one of those games where I was concerned about being flat. Everybody blowing smoke at us after the Atlanta game where we did what we were supposed to do, nothing special. Hopefully we learn from tonight.”

Jonas Valanciunas had the best game of an excellent month to keep Toronto in it, scoring a season-high 28 points with 14 rebounds despite battling foul trouble that kept him out of most of the third quarter. He also made two three-pointers, the first time he’s made more than one in a game in his career.

In each of Dwane Casey's first five seasons, the Raptors won more games each season than they did the year previous, and even a dip from 2015-16 to 2016-17 was only from 56 to 51 victories. It hasn?t gone unnoticed around the league. (Morry Gash/ The Associated Press file photo )

“He played with a lot of force against one of the best centre defenders (Utah’s Rudy Gobert) in the league, attacking the rim, rebounding,” said Casey. “Now we’ve got to get everyone else to join in the party, to play with that type of force to start the game, to set the tone.

“It’s an old saying: the way you start is the way you finish. And we finished the way we started.”

Toronto’s all-star backcourt of DeRozan and Kyle Lowry struggled all night. DeRozan did manage to score 19 points with eight assists, but Lowry was a miserable 2-for-14 from the field and 0-for-6 from three-point range.

Casey came out of Friday’s game with a 293-230 record in seven-plus seasons with the Raptors, far and away the most successful coach the franchise has employed. Some of that has to do with the lengthy tenure he’s enjoyed, no question, but in the “what have you done for me lately?” world of professional coaching employment, getting tenure only happens when you win.

And he needs just one win in Toronto’s next five games to be the head coach of the LeBron James led team at next month’s all-star game in L.A. It will be a fitting honour for the franchise’s most successful coach.

Since Casey got to Toronto, the wins have come in piles. In each of his first five seasons, they won more games each season than they did the year previous, and even a dip from 2015-16 to 2016-17 was only from 56 to 51 victories. It hasn’t gone unnoticed around the league.

“They’ve been building this for a long time, since he won a championship in Dallas and he became the head coach here,” Golden State’s Kevin Durant said when the Warriors were here earlier this month. “He changed the culture and they play extremely hard. He’s a great coach I’m glad he’s still here. I’m glad he’s still pushing. They’re one of the best teams in the league.”