“It’s only going to take one game. We just need that one game where we put together everything that we need. Seeing all of the shots going in, playing great defence, getting to the free-throw line, taking charges [and] playing the lanes—everything. Once we just get that out of one game, I think that will carry over to the rest of the games.”
That was DeMar DeRozan’s assessment of the current plight of the Raptors before Toronto went out and lost, again, on Tuesday night in San Antonio. The 10-point defeat was the club’s ninth loss in its last ten games—a streak not seen in these parts for quite some time—and with each passing game it’s becoming harder to believe that a single win can fix what currently ails the Raptors.
Their stretch of inconsistent play is going to take some time to recover from, and there’s just over a month until the NBA post-season begins.
Defensive struggles have plagued Toronto for most of the year, but the lack of ball movement and creativity on the offensive end has also become a concern.
“They [the players] have to decide if it’s: ‘Hey, enough,’” said Dwane Casey. “A lot of the game now is talking, communication [and] anticipation. The nuances of the game are going to be important the closer you get to the end of the season and into the playoffs.”
Casey added that his team must “play with that sense of urgency, that desperate mode that we have to play with to be successful.”
But the Raptors aren’t doing that. Not consistently.
As cliched as it may sound, Toronto has to put together a full 48-minute effort. Too often there are long lulls—on either end of the floor—that dig large deficits or allow sizable leads to quickly slip away. Apathy seems more prevalent than urgency.
“We’re still going to make the playoffs, so there’s no reason to hang our head,” said DeRozan. “We just need that kick-start again. But the confidence is still there.”
To his point, the Raptors don’t look like they’re scared on the floor. They’re not backing down from opponents. Whether it be a hard foul on LeBron James, a shootout against Russell Westbrook and the Thunder or a near-comeback against the champion San Antonio Spurs, Toronto is still swinging. Unfortunately, they’re missing more than they land, and the fatigue could be taking its toll, whether anybody admits it or not.
“At the end of the day—no matter who the opponent is—it’s us,” said Patrick Patterson. “The reason why we’re losing the game is us. It’s the way that we play on this court. It’s the way that we move [and] share the ball on the offensive end. It’s us rebounding [and] finishing plays, and us communicating and getting stops on defence. It’s no one outside this locker room that is causing us to lose.”
The problem may be that most of the Raptors have not been in this position before. Look down the roster—from DeRozan to Patterson, Kyle Lowry to Amir Johnson, Terrence Ross to Greivis Vasquez. Few have experienced true success for extended periods in either the regular season or, more importantly, the playoffs. Toronto, for the first time in more than a decade, has become the hunted. And the players have to learn how to change their approach to better suit their new alpha role.
“They don’t understand that it’s hard to turn it on and turn it off,” said Casey. “Human nature tells you that you’ve got an 11- or 12-game lead going into the last [18] games. But we can’t do that. We’re not good enough to have that sense of complacency or that lack of a sense of urgency.”
Perhaps no one understands that urgent need for urgency better than Kyle Lowry.
“We gotta play harder. Simple as that,” said a visibly frustrated Lowry after Tuesday’s game. “We were playing against the champs, and we should’ve been excited to play against the champs. It felt like we just let it drag along.”
“We ain’t need no kick in the a**,” he added a short time later. “We literally been getting our a** kicked … We should be able to go and do it.”