Be careful what you wish for, coaches …

“It’s kind of the old thing you used to say, ‘We don’t care if it’s a Tuesday night at 7 or Sunday afternoon at noon,’” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Friday. “That kind of coachspeak.”

He was speaking to reporters on Friday before his team – finally almost at full strength again – defeated a Clippers team significantly less than fully loaded and without Coach Tyronn Lue and doing it in a relatively empty Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

Reacting to a surge in COVID-19 cases, Canadian authorities this week barred gatherings of more than 1,000 people in any venue. No tickets were sold for Friday’s game, and only a few dozen friends and family were allowed in. Toronto’s previous two home games had been limited to 50% capacity.

“The main thing to keep in mind,” Nurse said, “is that we’re gettin’ to get out there and play. It’s a chance to compete, and a chance to get better and a chance to win a ballgame – that’s it.”

Playing professional basketball in the past couple of years has put that ol’ we’ll-play-whenever-wherever-whomever sentiment to the test.

That included Friday, the final day of 2021, when the Clippers (18-18) took the court without Lue, who was in the COVID-19 health and safety protocols, and eight of the 17 players (two-way contract players included) who were in the fold to start the season.

Ivica Zubac, Brandon Boston Jr. and Jay Scrubb also are in protocols and five of their teammates, including stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, are recovering from injuries.

The Raptors (15-17) were in better shape personnel-wise, with everyone back in uniform and available except for Scottie Barnes (right knee tendinitis), Isaac Bonga and DJ Wilson (protocols). That helped them snap a two-game losing streak that began after an eight-day gap between games – an unexpected break caused by the postponement of two contests on account of COVID-19.

The supremely short-handed Clippers, meanwhile, were playing their fourth game in six days and the first of a back-to-back set. They have another game scheduled Saturday in Brooklyn against the flourishing and fuller-strength Nets, who just beat the Clippers, 124-108, on Monday in L.A.

“We will have to use more bodies,” acting head coach Brian Shaw said, via Zoom, with a nod to the Clippers’ three 10-day signees who didn’t see the court Friday. “Obviously some guys played a little bit more minutes than we really wanted them to be out there tonight, but we really wanted to get this game. So some of the new guys that we signed will probably see some time on the floor and we are just going to have to try to scrap.”

As steep a challenge as Shaw found himself squinting upward at Friday, he said before tipoff that he still felt fortunate, and certain there wasn’t anything he’d rather be doing.

“I’m just appreciative,” he said. “This is, for the most part, 34 years that I’ve been involved in the NBA. … There’s nothing more that I would prefer to be doing other than something involved in it, with this game.”

And these Clippers are, indeed, proving to be one of those anytime, anyplace type of squads.

“One thing about this team is, regardless of who’s been out there on the floor, we’ve played hard and we’ve competed,” Shaw said pregame. “And in most of the games we’ve been in this season, we’ve given ourselves a chance to win. And so I don’t expect anything to be different.”

And though Toronto outrebounded the Clippers 18-3 on the offensive glass and, consequently, took 18 more shots and outdid their guests in second-chance scoring, 21-3, the nine players who Shaw used in the game gave themselves a chance, and a good one.

The Clippers fell behind 21-6 midway through the first quarter, but they fought through that early drought and took a five-point lead by halftime. They led much of the second half until the Raptors caught them and took a 93-91 lead on an OG Anunoby 3-pointer with 8:46 left.

A hustling Amir Coffey found Luke Kennard (13 points and a season-high six assists) in the corner for a 3-pointer that put the Clippers back on top, 99-98. But Fred VanVleet answered with a 3-pointer that tilted it back Toronto’s way, 101-99.

The lead went back and forth a few more times before Toronto corralled Coffey’s miss – the Raptors’ 54th rebound setting up VanVleet’s 3-pointer that pushed the hosts’ lead to 114-108 with 25.2 seconds left in the fourth, when Toronto outscored its guests, 34-21.

“We feel like we had control of the game up until five minutes there in the fourth and we just didn’t execute down the stretch,” Coffey said afterward, expressing regret about the Raptors’ success getting to the free-throw line in the final period, when they were 8 for 12 and the Clippers didn’t shoot a foul shot.

“The offensive rebounds really killed us, and we put them on the line a lot, and it just let them come back and chip away at the lead,” Coffey said. “We played well all game, we just gotta finish games out like that.”

Coffey didn’t miss much Friday, coming off the bench to score 15 points (including setting a new season high before halftime, when he had 11) on 5-for-9 shooting.

Otherwise, Reggie Jackson got more winded than normal, but he was typically bold in his first game back after spending a week in protocols. The 31-year-old point guard started and airballed his first shot – a 3-pointer from the top of the key – but he finished 5 for 8 from behind the arc (and 6 for 17 overall) en route to 17 points.

“Felt good,” Jackson said. “I was a little tired early, to start. (But I) found my second wind, tried to get my feet under me. Glad to be back. Fortunate and very blessed to be back doing something I love to do and being around a group of guys that I love being around.”

Marcus Morris Sr. continued his consistent and much-needed offensive onslaught, scoring 20-plus points for a career-high fifth consecutive game. On Friday, he led the Clippers with 20 points. And Terance Mann finished with 18 points and a team-high 11 rebounds.

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The 6-foot-6 Justise Winslow spent much of the game stationed at center, where the Clippers were especially, well, short without Zubac and Isaiah Hartenstein (sprained ankle). Winslow chipped in with eight points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a pair of rejections in the span of 12 seconds in the first half.

Serge Ibaka, the former Raptor, was the subject of a tribute video in his first game in Toronto since joining the Clippers last season. He started but didn’t play in the fourth quarter, and finished with seven points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots in 18 minutes.

Out of protocols and playing his first game since Dec. 18, VanVleet and Pascal Siakam were big for the Raptors.

Siakam had 25 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists and VanVleet had 31 points and nine assists. Anunoby added 26 points.

Coach Shaw talks about his first go as the Clippers HC.@LAClippers | #ClippersLive pic.twitter.com/uhBq4XDEOP

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) January 1, 2022

.@Reggie_Jackson talks to the media after his first game back @LAClippers | #ClippersLive pic.twitter.com/BeaFEzYVW8

— Bally Sports West (@BallySportWest) January 1, 2022

Two incredible Justise Winslow blocks in the span of 12 seconds. pic.twitter.com/XApRQ8IIVo

— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) January 1, 2022

FVV x OG x Spicy P

The @Raptors trio of @FredVanVleet, @OAnunoby and @pskills43 combine for 82 PTS in their victory! pic.twitter.com/iPM2HZ1L8g

— NBA (@NBA) January 1, 2022