Anatomy of a dagger: How Kyle Lowry defied logic to break Pelicans' hearts

The NBA's official play-by-play log of Tuesday's game between the Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Pelicans will tell you that Kyle Lowry drained a 21-foot game-winning step-back jump shot with four seconds remaining - good for his 32nd and 33rd points of the night.

In other words, it tells you that an All-NBA star beat a losing team as part of an impressive individual performance - none of which raises any eyebrows.

What it doesn't tell you is that the Pelicans defended a broken Raptors possession about as well as they possibly could have - a reminder that plays, games, and ultimately seasons are defined by results that don't always reflect the processes that precede them.

Here's the story of Lowry's unlikely dagger:

The Raptors inbound the ball with 29.4 seconds remaining in overtime and the score tied at 106. The first thing that jumps out in rewatching the play is that E'Twaun Moore gets away with a foul while trying to deny Lowry the ball, as he grabs and holds onto the Raptors' star point guard in front of an official.

In any event, Toronto gets the ball to Lowry, and the fun begins.

In the first screengrab below, you see Terrence Ross in the corner, motioning to Raptors teammate Patrick Patterson, while Terrence Jones - guarding Patterson - tries to get the attention of Pelicans teammate Solomon Hill, who's guarding Ross.

In the second screengrab, you'll notice that Patterson is motioning back to Ross, while Hill (No. 44) has picked up on whatever Jones was calling for.

Ross and Patterson's confusion is the first sign of the dysfunction that threatens to derail what could be Toronto's final possession.

Patterson: "Just miscommunication on the offensive set. Coach drew up a play in the huddle, we came out of the huddle and were supposed to run it, but there was miscommunication. Guys weren't in the right spot at the right time."

Dwane Casey: "There's a lot of things we have to clean up - execution down the stretch, who's supposed to screen, who's supposed to go where. We got discombobulated. Usually DeMar (DeRozan)'s in there. We didn't execute the play properly."

Meanwhile, Jones and Hill have decided to execute a brilliant defensive switch away from the ball, as Hill will now guard Patterson while Jones covers Ross.

The two Pelicans correctly anticipate Patterson eventually setting a high screen for Lowry. Rather than that future screen switching Lowry's defender from Moore to Jones (a big man), the Jones-Hill pre-switch now ensures Hill will get the chance to eventually switch onto Lowry, giving New Orleans a better perimeter defender.

In the two screengrabs below, you first see Patterson - with Hill trailing him - coming to set the screen, and then leaving the scene - with Moore on him and Hill on Lowry - after the offensive screen and defensive switch have been executed.

With only five seconds on the shot clock and no other options created by the possession, Lowry attacks Hill, who does a fantastic job seemingly taking away every inch of space he can without fouling, as the following three screengrabs attest.

That last screengrab, in particular, is stunning when you remember that Lowry would go on to sink the go-ahead bucket. Hill is seven inches taller, and with his arms outstretched, it appears as though an optical illusion is needed just for Lowry to get a clean shot off, let alone make it.

Hill: "I let him get to his left hand, and he made the shot. There wasn't anything impossible about it. He did it all night. I gave him an opportunity to get to his favorite hand. The step-back move is one of his favorite moves - something he's done in the past."

Lowry: "It was a shot I wanted to get to, and I made it over him."

Hill: "I think that was bad defense on my end."

Hill, of course, was being far too modest and hard on himself. Lowry connected on a 21-foot, off-balance step-back jumper with a good defender draped all over him as the shot clock expired, leaving him a couple rows deep into the crowd by the time the ball finished its descent through the basket.

Lowry may have wanted to go left before releasing a jumper, but surely this wasn't the look he had in mind, as he admitted there was little more Hill could've done.

Lowry: "Great defense ... it was a tough shot. I just made it. The only thing he could've done better was block it. He didn't, but I give him a lot of credit for that defensive effort."

Hill and the Pelicans will be the first to tell you there are no moral victories, as in the end, the history books will simply remember this play as a successful offensive trip for the victorious Raptors, a failed defensive stand for New Orleans, and a clutch bucket by a perennial All-Star.

Basketball, like life, can be cruelly unfair.