Raptors riding wild run from three-point range

Shooting 46 per cent as team from arc since Nov. 15

while he agrees this type of seemingly nightly success can have a detrimental impact on other facets of the team game, he believes he has kept the defence moving in the right direction while nearly every other three-ball the Raps shoot finds its way through the hoop.

“I think that’s one thing we’ve gotta be careful of,” Casey said. “I mean I like it, we’re not gonna give it back, but we gotta make sure that our defence (doesn’t suffer), and our defence is getting better. Points per possessions are getting better, we took away the three last night (against Milwaukee), they’re not a great three-point shooting team.

“We did give up 54 points in the paint. That’s a concern, the back cuts, the rebounding is a concern. We still have come concerns defensively, but there’s areas that we are getting better in.”

The only thing Lowry can compare this to in his 10 years in the league is his first season in Houston.

“When I first got traded to Houston, I wasn’t a three-point shooter at all, but Shane Battier wasn’t missing,” Lowry said. “Ron Artest, when he was Ron, (before he changed his name to Metta World Peace) wasn’t missing. Aaron Brooks was shooting the three well, Von Wafer … we had a good group of guys.”

But even that group never went on a run like the Raptors are on.

“Early in the year we were just playing off DeMar (DeRozan) and we were like, ‘Let him run the show.’ We were winning games. Once he cooled down a little bit and teams started double-teaming him more, he started finding everyone else. Now everyone else’s confidence and rhythm is starting to be there.”

The first three games of the year saw the Raptors experience the other end of the spectrum. From three in those games the Raptors were 3-for-18, 4-for-16 and 4-for-16 again. Things picked up after that but it wasn’t until that trip to Cleveland in mid-November that the bug seemed to catch all the shooters.

The suggestion has been made over the past couple of days it might be a case of one guy getting hot and the rest following his lead.

Lowry scoffs at the notion of good shooting being contagious.

“No,” he said immediately. “We all work on our games individually. We are all individuals. We all work separately and just go out there and play basketball. Things you do on the court in the individual time, it shows up (at game time).”