Raptors look to shoot way out of swoon

5-GAME LOSING SKID

We have to find a way to get out of the hole.”

A start would be finding their collective three-point stroke.

Kyle Lowry scored 29 points in the loss to Memphis and shot 4-for-10 from behind the arc. The 40 per cent success rate is a touch lower than his season average but drastically lower than the crazy numbers he had been putting up in December.

In December, Lowry was hitting threes at an unsustainable 50.4 per cent clip.

In January that has dipped to 36.5 per cent. For the year, he’s hitting a very respectable 42.2 per cent.

But his January decline has coincided with a decline in Terrence Ross’ success rate from three-point land and Patrick Patterson’s absence that negated that three-point threat and his struggles since he returned.

It has all added up to substantially water down what had been a very important part of the Raptors offence.

The team has slipped to fifth in the NBA in threepoint shooting. In the past three games, they have shot just under 27 per cent from three. It explains a lot of the team’s offensive struggles.

But coach Dwane Casey’s major concern is the offensive woes are showing up at the other end of the floor.

“Right now, they are not going in and I think we are carrying some of that down to the defensive end,” Casey said.

“I’ve got to do a better job of getting us better looks or whatever it is but we can’t carry some of our offensive woes to the defensive end.

“The shots are going to fall,” Casey said.

“Guys go through this, our team is going through this now. We shot 29 per cent tonight and we’re a better three-point shooting team than that. We can’t take our lack of offensive energy down to the defensive end. I think that is what happened in the first half.”

It’s not necessarily a given that as soon as the three-point numbers start to get back to normal, the defence should pick up, but that is the hope.

It certainly won’t hurt, but rest assured Casey will continue to harp on his players until they provide him with 48 minutes of defensive intensity. Right now he’s not getting that. Toronto Raptors’ Kyle Lowry passes to Toronto Raptors’ Lucas Nogueira left, during recent NBA action. Nogueira says there’s no sense of panic within the team. “We are good and we are positive in the locker room,” he said.