Lou Williams scores 26 as Clippers beat Raptors 117-106

All of the Clippers contributed to this big moment with their inspired play, and after a stirring win, they all expressed gratitude toward each other with a hug, a high-five, a simple hand slap or just a knowing smile.

They first had to embrace their own failures — which put the Clippers in an 18-point hole in the first quarter — then they embraced a change of attitude that was the impetus for L.A. charging back for a 117-106 victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Toronto Raptors on Sunday at Air Canada Centre.

And when the Clippers completed the four-game trip 2-2, they celebrated their accomplishment by embracing on the court as a group.

“Listen, we talk about touching every day. We really do,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “And the more you touch the closer you get. To see every single guy off the bench on the floor hugging … They saw what just happened. That’s the best team in the East. And we came back from being down (18). I thought it was down 40, it felt like. But we hung in there.”

The Clippers hung around because Lou Williams took control in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 of his 26 points off the bench, including one stretch where he scored 12 consecutive points.

After the game, while Williams was doing a postgame television interview on the court, Montrezl Harrell (who had 19 points and six rebounds) wrapped his arms around his teammate.

Rivers waited by the side of the court to slap hands with DeAndre Jordan (14 rebounds).

Tobias Harris (20 points) and Jordan both ran onto the court and leaped high in the air to chest-bump 7-foot-3 Boban Marjanovic after his no-look bounce pass led to a Harrell dunk. Marjanovic also had a one-handed dunk in the fourth that gave the Clippers a 96-82 lead and forced the Raptors to call a timeout.

“We’ve had so much adversity, I think it’s brought us closer,” said Williams, who also had seven assists. “I think that’s just the personalities that we have. We congratulate each other when we do special things. We don’t have any disconnects when it comes to relationships. So when we accomplish things, I think it’s important for everybody to be on the same accord. So that felt good. We got a lift from everybody.”

Milos Teodosic, who scored six of his 15 points in the first, helped steady the Clippers when they were down 27-9 with his abundance of energy.

“We got to give props to Milos,” Jordan said. “He kept us in the game in the first half. Everybody except Milos in the first unit, we played like (nothing). Like I said, Milos kept us in the game.”

The Clippers are still in the 10^th spot in the Western Conference, but they have nine regular-season games left to keep pushing for a playoff spot.

“I thought there were a lot of heroes in the game,” Rivers said. “Everybody did good things tonight. And I thought after the game you could see the emotion. These guys knew this was a big game for us. We felt like we had to get it. We went and got it.”

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner