Raptors skidding, DeRozan to miss 2 games with ankle sprain
TORONTO –For the first time since November 2015 the Toronto Raptors are on a three-game losing skid, something they hadn’t done over a stretch of 112 regular season games.
The skid began with a narrow defeat to the Philadelphia 76ers, continued with a 35-point blowout to the Charlotte Hornets and, on Sunday, an ugly loss to the Phoenix Suns.
The outcome against the Suns in particular was one the Raptors want to forget. Not only did they allow a fourth-quarter comeback, but All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan left the game in the final minutes after rolling his ankle just moments after his backcourt partner Kyle Lowry was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul. DeRozan, who was named a starter on the Eastern Conference All-Star team last week, was diagnosed with a sprain and will miss the next two games.
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“It’s a little bit of adversity, but we’re professionals,” Lowry told Paste BN Sports. “No one is feeling sorry for us, but we’ll be fine. We got to get back to work and get back to basics. We’re not panicking, so I think we understand what the situation is and we just got to figure it out.”
From the perspective of Raptors coach Dwane Casey, there is relatively easy fix to what’s been going on. Over the past three games his team is shooting less than 40% from the field, and just 26% from three-point range.
Shooting struggles are natural at the NBA level, Casey said, but it’s allowing those issues to seep into defensive efforts which is a red flag.
“If your shot is not falling you got to make it up on the defensive end; we can’t let our offensive woes go to the defensive end,” Casey said. “It’s not about offense, I’ve said that the entire year. We got to get stops because there’s going to be nights and games when your shot is not falling. That’s where we are right now.”
Dropping three consecutive games is never a welcomed situation, but DeRozan said there are some positives. The Raptors have been a top Eastern Conference contender for the past several seasons, and consistently competing at that level can generate a level of comfort.
DeRozan said no one should be content right now.
“That will motivate you,” DeRozan said. “If anything, if you’re a true competitor, you hate the feeling of leaving the arena like this. It sucks at night, having that on your mind. Having consecutive losses, especially three, which we’re not used to having. You just got to come out with that feeling, that hunger, that aggressiveness.”
The Raptors’ hope of busting out of the current slump will not come easy. They host the San Antonio Spurs (34-9) on Tuesday at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, a team which sits in second place in the Western Conference and has only dropped nine games so far this season.
Raptors have had one encounter with the Spurs already this year, a 110-82 loss in San Antonio on Jan. 3. Casey hopes the team’s current losing skid and the previous defeat to the Spurs are used as motivation, and while he agrees it’s no time to panic, he expects a fierce performance and a return to form that will lead to a turnaround in a key game and beyond.
“When you lose three in a row you should be frustrated, you should be upset,” Casey said. “I don’t want anybody in the locker room not to be upset and frustrated because we’ve set a standard for ourselves to be better than that.”