Jan 6, 2015
Raptors recommit to defence in return home
Dwane Casey knew that he and his team were not making headlines in the city on the day the Maple Leafs fired Randy Carlyle. Content with just getting back to work at home after a long road trip, the Raptors coach wasted little time in reestablishing the defensive principles that have been slipping away.
TORONTO - Quietly, the Raptors went about their business on Tuesday, practicing in their own gym for the first time in over two weeks.
Just outside the door, a few stray reporters waited for the morning session to let out as a much larger media contingent swarmed the Maple Leafs locker room four floors below. The hockey club, co-tenants with the Raptors at the Air Canada Centre, had fired their head coach hours earlier.
Dwane Casey knew that he and his team were not making headlines in the city on this day. Content with just getting back to work at home after a long road trip, the Raptors coach wasted little time in reestablishing the defensive principles that have been slipping away.
"It started with defence," he said. "It's one of those things that slips when you go for a long period of time without practice. Today was more of a training camp-type practice, which we need more of."
"Guys responded, had a good day of practice but we've got to carry that over to the games," he continued. "And like I challenged the guys today, we should get more emphatic and more upset and [just as] teed off against the other team as we do against each other. If we compete in the games the way we compete in practice, we'd be a much better defensive team. So we have to carry that over into game situations."
The Raptors, a team that ranked 10th in defence last year and ninth through the first month of this season, have fallen a long way in that category. Only the lowly Knicks and Timberwolves allow more points per 100 possession since the end of November.
"I think it's going to be the emphasis for the next couple of weeks for us with the way coach has been talking and preaching to us," Kyle Lowry said Tuesday. "I think we're all on the same page where we understand that's how we're going to win."
Seemingly, the team's improved offence has come at the expense of their defensive prowess, but Casey points to a more specific cause - the noticeable decline that coincides with DeMar DeRozan's 18-game absence.
"Since DeMar has gone down our offensive style has changed a little bit in that we're more of a running team, we play a little bit faster," Casey stated. "I think that affected our defence somewhat."
"We had to survive and our offence stepped up and carried us in the games we won on the road trip and the games before we went on the trip," the coach went on. "We had to adjust and the way we adjusted was to play a little bit faster, which, in turn, I really know affected our defence."
According to NBA.com, the Raptors have actually played at a similar, and even slightly slower pace since DeRozan's injury, but there's no question his time away has shuffled the deck enough to hurt them in various areas on both ends of the floor.
Lowry, one of their hardest working defenders, has been overworked, evident in a pair of lopsided defeats to Golden State and Phoenix at the end of an already tiring road trip. At times during Sunday's 16-point loss to the Suns, Casey hid Lowry on P.J. Tucker while combinations of Terrence Ross, Lou Williams and Greivis Vasquez handled the responsibility of guarding Phoenix's talented backcourt duo of Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe.
"This time home will do me good," Lowry said. "Get back in our whirlpools, our treatment centres. We get a chance to be home, relax a lot more, get some good food, not eat hotel food all the time. So it's good. It's going to be good for me."
Although a 2-4 record is nothing to be ashamed of, given the high degree of difficulty on their recent road trip, those last two losses have left a sour taste in everyone's mouth.
"No," Lowry said emphatically when asked if he's satisfied with the result of the trip. "No, not at all. We had a losing record. If you have a losing record on a road trip or in general, it's not successful. We won a couple games on the trip, but we wanted more. We wanted to win 'em all."
"Emotional, physical or whatever fatigue you have, the league doesn't feel sorry for you," Casey added. "Those are the situations we faced in there but there's no excuses in this league. We got our butts whooped, now we've got to come back here and regroup, refocus, especially on the defensive end and get our act together."
DeROZAN ON TRACK FOR RETURN
Although DeRozan was not present at practice on Tuesday, he remains on track to return later this week.
The Raptors guard had been scheduled to undergo a series of routine scans on his healing groin injury. The results of these tests will help determine when he's able to get back on the court - likely on Thursday at home to Charlotte, the team's next game, or Saturday at home to Boston.
It's been nearly six weeks since DeRozan sustained his injury, tearing his left adductor longus tendon in a loss to the Mavericks on Nov. 28. Accompanying the team on their recent road trip, he was able to get in a couple full practices last week and should be back in the gym on Wednesday.
"He's getting there," Lowry said of his teammate. "He's getting better. So today and tomorrow will be big days for him. I think he's going to come back aggressive whenever he comes back. We can't force feed him. We have to be patient with him."