Sure it should have been expected—coming against the 13-47 76ers—but Toronto’s win on the road in Philadelphia Monday night was accompanied by a long sigh of relief.
It brought the Raptors’ five-game losing streak to an end and included the welcome return of DeMar DeRozan’s scoring touch. Against a Sixers’ defence that ranks 13th league-wide, Toronto scored 114 points on 51.3 percent shooting from the field—their best showing since their big win in Atlanta back on Feb. 20—and DeRozan’s explosion in the City of Brotherly Love wasn’t limited to his 35 points. He torched Philly for nine rebounds, five assists and two steals, and was a perfect 10-of-10 at the free-throw line.
Not a bad night.
But one victory over an NBA basement-dweller can’t be allowed to mask the problems that have persisted during the Raptors’ recent skid—a span of six games in which Toronto has gone 1-5. Here’s a look at the offence over that period:
Extend the window back to Feb. 1 (a 12-game span in which Toronto is 5-7) and the view doesn’t get much prettier. Here’s where the Raptors rank over the past four weeks:
“Offensively, I think confidence is the No. 1 thing,” said head coach Dwane Casey prior to Monday’s win. “Playing with confidence, shooting the ball with confidence, [and] getting back to where we were moving the ball and sharing the ball—quick decisions, whether it’s driving it or shooting it. I truly believe once we get out of this funk we’re in the offence is going to come back. We’ve got too many good players to miss the shots we’re missing.”
Since Feb. 1, six players in Casey’s top-eight rotation have taken an offensive dip. Here’s a look at their points-per-game numbers.
“We still believe in one another,” said Patrick Patterson at Monday morning’s shootaround in Philadelphia. “We know what we have on this team. We know that we have a sixth man of the year candidate. We know we have a great big man in JV. We know we have great leaders in Kyle and DeMar. We know we have an all star. We know we have a great coaching staff. We know we have an X-man in JJ.
“Nobody is getting down on one another; nobody is pointing the finger. It’s just all about finding a way to get back to playing the kind of defence we were earlier in the season.”
Ironically, Toronto’s defence has been better of late. Though the Raptors gave up a whopping 103 points (on 52.6 percent shooting) to a crew of relative unknowns in Philly, the team had been better at locking opponents down of late. Even during the five-game losing streak (which included blowout losses to Houston and Golden State) Casey’s crew had crept back to the middle of the pack in many defensive categories.
Here’s where the team currently ranks league-wide on D:
*The Raptors are the only playoff team in the NBA to rank in the lower-third of both these categories.
“Everything starts with defence,” said Casey. “If I had my druthers, I’d rather think about offence ‘cause I know we have scorers. But it’s never going to get there if we don’t play defence.”
Patterson echoed that sentiment.
“At the end of the day, it’s not our offence, it’s our defence that’s causing us to lose games,” he said. “We have to put together at least 24—if not 48 minutes—of effort.”
Yet in spite of their recent struggles (which aren’t likely to get any easier with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers coming to town on Wednesday), the Raptors’ attitude remains strong, their outlook positive.
“I’d rather hit this rut right now then hit it in the last week of the season going into the playoffs,” said Kyle Lowry. “I’d rather hit it now and have time to work ourselves out of it.”
Casey believes he and his team can draw inspiration from what the Dallas Mavericks went through during their championship season back in 2010-11 (when Casey was an assistant coach under Rick Carlisle).
“We lost 10 out of 13 and six in a row [that year],” he said. “That happens to good teams. It happens to everyone in the league. Now we’re going through something—we’re going through adversity. This has got to make us stronger. We can’t drop our heads and drop our shoulders and say, ‘Hey, feel sorry for me’.
“This is a non-forgiving league.”