WASHINGTON – Kyle Lowry slammed his phone backward into his locker, the rattling sound startling the quiet room. DeMar DeRozan stared directly at the floor without blinking for long minutes. Amir Johnson heaved an empty water bottle off the wall. From the nearby showers, lone expletives echoed with no response.

Seven months of work is at an end and, from the team standpoint, it’s a failure.

This room is full of young millionaires. There are hundreds of thousands in jewelry and beautifully tailored clothing to be put on, late-night fine dining and all-night clubs awaiting in a world-class city.

But they collectively couldn’t care less in this moment. There are a few times per season in the NBA where all the excess and money and fame fade away and all that’s left is loss. It’s a business and they have professional obligations they must fulfill, but this part is personal. It hurts the same way it did when they were teenagers when they didn’t have private jets, mansions and luxury cars to mitigate matters.

The Toronto Raptors took their turn in this zone Friday night, their 106-99 Game 3 loss to the Washington Wizards dropping them down 3-0 in the series. They knew what it meant.

“What is it,” DeRozan said, “like 0-111 or something like that?”

Actually, it’s 0-110 but by Sunday it could be 0-112. As in the times a team has come back to win a series after falling going down 0-3. Never. The Milwaukee Bucks and New Orleans Pelicans will try to avoid sweeps on Saturday before the Raptors try to win some respect Sunday.

Yes, there’s a first time for everything and when they drag themselves back to the Verizon Center Sunday the Raptors will try to buck themselves up with such motivation. But the reality in this moment is that they’re all but done and the defeat was setting in.

If they lose on Sunday they will feel some relief that it’s over, they’ll have reached a level of acceptance over the following 48 hours. The sting of realization can sometimes be sharper than the final blow.

“Everyone knows the history,” Lowry said.

There are individual details that can be explained about what happened in Game 3 but they just fit easily into the overall context of the series.

Paul Pierce dropped two daggers on them in the fourth quarter, 3-pointers than crushed their hopes of making it a series. Then he strutted down the court, enjoying a triple shot of satisfaction. He’s celebrating the backing up of his pre-series brash talk about the Raptors’ missing fortitude, sending a little dig toward the Brooklyn Nets for casting him off and simultaneously enjoying what could be one last postseason ride as a difference-maker before it’s off to retirement.

Otto Porter, the 2013 No. 3 overall pick who had largely been a disappointment until recently, had another excellent overall performance off the bench and made his own clutch plays.

Wizards coach Randy Wittman has outdone counterpart Dwane Casey in this series. Wittman’s defensive schemes have limited the Raptors guards and the needed adjustments haven’t come or just haven’t worked.

Washington’s small lineups with Pierce at power forward have crushed Toronto. In the fourth quarter the spread offense and ball movement led to basket after basket as the Wizards racked up 34 points. Meanwhile at the other end, the perimeter-based Raptors have been unable to take advantage of matchups. It’s been going this way for a week now. Whenever the Wizards need a boost, Wittman hits this button and there’s almost instant gratification.

Lowry, who already had back issues and a bruised shin, came down with a cold over the last two days. Then he shot 5-of-22 in the most important game of the season. He’s been miserable in this series, now shooting 10-of-42.

“At the end of the day I’ve still got to go out there and play,” Lowry said in a whisper, his voice mostly taken by the virus. “That’s why we get paid to play.”

After making eight of his first 11 shots as he scored 20 points in the first quarter, DeRozan went 3-of-18 over the last three quarters. Porter was responsible for much of it, Wittman putting him on DeRozan and the switch working like a charm. The frustration boiled in the fourth when the normally mild-mannered DeRozan was hit with a technical foul out of frustration after Porter blocked one of his shots and then gloated about it.

Frankly, with the struggles the Raptors are having, both self-inflicted and opponent-induced, it was remarkable it was still a game in the final minute. It’s even more remarkable to think Toronto was favored in this series after going 3-0 against the Wizards in the regular season.

All of this weighed on the Raptors as they started the stages of grief as midnight approached. After a narrow seven-game series loss to the Nets last year, this year was supposed to be better. For a while they looked like a true contender.

Who knows how deep some of the dreams were but certainly there was an expectation they’d finally win a playoff series after 14 years of failing.

Instead this has been a disaster and complete exposure of their flaws. It’s a movement in the wrong direction and, as an extra kick, it’s happening because of the old man from Kansas, Pierce, again.

“We’re disappointed,” Casey said. “We are still on life support, it’s not over yet.”