Raptors’ Miles sees room to improve

ORLANDO, FLA. • C.J. Miles wants to set the record straight.

Yes, he’s frustrated at times when his lightning-quick release of a three-pointer doesn’t end the way he expects it should, but he’s fine, really. He would just like to see more of those shots find the bottom of the net is all.

In the early moments following a win over the Detroit Pistons Monday in Toronto, a win in which Miles went two for six from distance, had nine points and was a plus-14, he took to Twitter to express some frustration, admonishing himself: “Do your … job.”

Seventy six people took the time to respond to the tweet, almost to a person telling him they still had hisbackandtonottobesohardon himself.

While Miles very much appreciated the kind words, he doesn’t want the fan base reading too much into one tweet.

“It’s great to see everyone watching the games and being attentive and believing in what I do, but at the same time I don’t want anyone to think I was in a (depression) or anything,” Miles said Tuesday morning before a team shootaround.

“It wasn’t like I was in the worst placeintheworld.Itwasmemore (being) funny, but at the same time there is a little seriousness in every joke.”

Through eight games in February, Miles is enjoying his best month of the season in terms of makes from behind the arc, where he is shooting 45.8 per cent. His previous best month was November when he hit at 41.2 per cent before oral surgery and the lifechanging — in the best possible way — arrival of he and wife Lauren’s first child took him out of his rhythm a bit.

Tuesday morning, a story was tweeted to the 30-year-old, identifying his .47 points per possession as the best in the NBA. Miles was not aware of that particular number, but he knows he’s in a pretty good place right now — even if he is always looking to improve.

“It’s not so much that I think I canmakeeveryshotItake,”Miles said. “I mean, I feel like I’m going to make every shot, obviously, but some I have missed (recently) I feel I could have shot with my eyes closed.”

And that’s where Miles’s frustration, particularly Monday night, came from. He had a couple of open looks with so much time they should be no-doubters, yet they rimmed out.

“I don’t feel like I’m in a bad spot now. I just want to continue it,” Miles said. “Put together a long string and continue to get ready for what we are trying to do.

“It’s just trying to get sharper and sharper, and that’s the hardest thing,” he said. “I’m as hard on myself as anybody is, and that’s the reason I was able to turn myself into the shooter I was able to become, because I broke it down over and over and mentally trained myself to be able to do that.

“So I’m always going to be hard on myself. Even if I go five for seven, I’m going to feel like I should havebeensixforseven.”

Raptors head coach Dwane Casey likes the rhythm he sees Miles in right now, but knows he can do more.

“He can be so much better on a lot of different things,” Casey said. “C.J. is a professional scorer. He can get his shot off at any time. He does an excellent job of mixing up driving and that sort of thing, but defensively he can be better.

“He can get into his man, run his guy off his route, coming out of the corners on (dribble handoffs) — that is where we see room for improvement for us. We know what he can do offensively and we can do a better job of helping him get open and find him spots to utilize his three.

“I thought the mouth surgery he had earlier in the season kind of got him off rhythm, out of condition a little bit, and he’s just now coming back from it, but there’s anotherlevelforC.J.togetto.”